Just in time for the holidays, last-mile delivery technology firm Veho has found a $125 million present under its tree.
The next-day delivery specialists announced the series A round, led by Construct Capital, on Tuesday. Additional participants include Bling Capital, Industry Ventures, Fontinalis Partners and Origin Ventures.
Total funding in Veho is now $129.2 million, according to Crunchbase. The latest funding came with a valuation of $1 billion.
“We’re providing e-commerce brands a fast, tech-forward and customer-centric delivery option that ensures brand perception makes it past the purchase, all the way through to the customer door,” said Itamar Zur, Veho CEO and co-founder. “We avoid many of the traditional pitfalls of logistics and shipping through advanced proprietary technology, a culture that places the customer experience at the center of everything we do and our partnership with professional and qualified crowdsourced drivers.”
Zur said the company is currently operating in 14 U.S. cities but has plans to scale to 50 markets by the end of 2022. It will also scale its “doorstep returns” program.
Veho provides next-day service for parcels, specializing in e-commerce parcels. It claims that is technology-driven solution provides brands – which include apparel, accessories, and food and packaged goods companies – with a 20% increase in customer repurchase, 40% increase in customer lifetime value and an 8-point increase in net promoter score (NPS) compared with customers who received their boxes from a traditional shipping company.
Watch: Navigating the final feet of last mile
The company provides customers with insight into their package deliveries, providing details on what time the delivery driver should arrive, and driver en route notifications while allowing for real-time rescheduling, address changes and personalized delivery instructions.
Veho utilizes a crowdsourced driver network.
“The role of last-mile logistics in e-commerce is more important than ever and Veho is bringing much-needed innovation to a space that has for years struggled to keep up with the dramatic increase in demand while focusing on a superior consumer experience,” said Kyle Doherty, managing director at General Catalyst. “Ita, Fred (Cook, co-founder and CTO) and the Veho team are reimagining how delivery logistics can be architected to bring a competitive advantage to e-commerce brands while creating more opportunities for delivery professionals that choose to join the Veho platform.”
Veho utilizes customer communication, in-market warehouse locations and a dynamic marketplace to seamlessly match demand for deliveries with last-mile driver-partners, it said.
Veho is currently operating in major cities in Colorado, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
Drivers working with Veho book routes that last between two and six hours and can choose the days they work. Once logged in, the driver heads to the local Veho warehouse, picks up the orders for the booked route and heads out to make the deliveries.
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