Indian Angel Network (IAN) has funded $1 million in business-to-business (B2B) logistics platform Pidge, the angel network announced in a statement on Thursday. The founders of Pidge also self-funded $2 million in the firm as well.
Pidge will use the investment for the development and heightening of its product pipeline. The company would also extend these funds in improving its technological capabilities.
Pidge has newly launched its services in the Chandigarh Tricity area and has promised same-day delivery to its customers, even if the pickup is from other geographically nearby cities. It leverages its micro-fulfilment centres, identified as ‘Pidge Houses’, to cater to the necessities of its business partners for faster and better-controlled deliveries, the statement declared.
“We saw an enormous opportunity in the last-mile logistics space driven by behavioural changes in the supply-and-demand side and compounded by the problems created by current incumbents,” stated Ratnesh Verma, Co-founder, Pidge.
The corporation declares to have catered to markets in divisions like luxury brands, five-star hotels, legacy restaurants and national level e-commerce players, including marketplaces. The company said its platform works on a yield optimization business model developed on dynamic pricing and demand predictability.
“Pidge leverages its proprietary modular SaaS solution and game-changing algorithms to deliver unparalleled latency optimization; while combining the coverage of traditional logistics with the convenience of on-demand hyperlocal services,” Verma continued.
“The last mile logistics industry in India is $40 bn today and expected to grow to $100 bn by 2025. Of this market, over 75% is currently still unorganized, and over 80% is reliant on the captive fleet,” said Padmaja Ruparel, co-founder, IAN.
Demand for logistics in India has evolved stronger recently, owing to deeper penetration by e-commerce businesses like Flipkart and Amazon.
About Pidge
Ratnesh Verma, the founder of Pidge, faced a set of individual pain cases back in 2018 while sending and receiving some packages. So, he began ideating on a logistics startup in April 2019. By June 2019, Ratnesh started examining the business service model on a low-tech basis, and after several repetitions, his startup Pidge finally ran live in September 2019.
He is an alumnus of Stanford University and has spent 25 years serving with Hyatt Hotels. His last position involved managing Hyatt’s development in the Asia-Pacific and Southwest Asia region, covering 50 countries. Verma entered Whitbread, the parent firm behind Premier Inn and Costa Coffee brands, in 2015 as the President and Managing Director.
Based out of Gurugram, Pidge currently serves in five Delhi-NCR cities, Delhi, Noida, Faridabad, Gurugram, and Ghaziabad, fulfilling both on-demand local deliveries and courier requirements. Pidge recently expanded its business to Chandigarh also.
