Founder of six technology ventures and angel investor, Ravi Gururaj recently launched his new project QikPod. And in less than a month, the startup has managed to raise $9 million (approximately Rs. 60 crore) from a group of investors.
Besides ecommerce leader Flipkart, other strategic and financial investors include Accel Partners, Delhivery, and Foxconn that have pumped $9 million in the startup.
“I had always planned to jump back into building a venture, but took a while to identify a tangible, valuable and large growing problem area where I could build an innovative company,” said Gururaj while speaking about his comeback venture.
The ecommerce startup is a parcel-delivery locker service that aims to minimize last mile delivery issues. The objective is to build a network of fully automated and self-serve lockers to drop and pick-up parcels. These lockers will be set-up in various coffee shops, kirana stores, big retail outlets, public transit locations, office and residential compounds.
Once implemented, it will help to reduce last mile delivery cost due to failed deliveries, ease the pressure on logistics & delivery and offer flexibility to customers.
Prashanth Prakash, partner at Accel Partners explained how QikPod is need of the hour, “There is a dire need for a more convenient shipping alternative to home delivery to sustain the high growth in e-commerce and hyperlocal categories. A connected locker is a simple and effective solution to this problem. For consumers, there will be no more hassles of payments, returns, coordinating timings with delivery staff, and for the e-tailers, this will finally enable true economies of scale.”
For now, the service is available in Bangalore but soon all courier and ecommerce companies across the country will be able to use it. QikPod aims to build around 50,000 lockers, right from small ones with 10 compartments to bigger ones with 100s of compartments, across the country. Additionally, the service is free for end consumers and host places for now.
QikPod is not the first investment Flipkart has made to reduce last-mile delivery issues. The ecommerce leader reportedly invested in MapmyIndia along with opening large warehouses in Chennai and Telangana for supply chain management. It will be interesting to see what changes QikPod will bring in Flipkart’s performance.
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