Russian startup Deliver (formerly iCanDeliver) has just announced the completion of a $7.5 million investment deal. The backers are Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Mubadala, the Russian and Abu Dhabi sovereign funds, respectively.
The respective contributions of the two funds have not been disclosed, but Deliver founder Danil Rudakov told Vedomosti that the investment will be split into three capital injections over the next 12 months.
The deal marks a new step in the long-term partnership between the two sovereign funds, which recently announced the completion of a transaction to jointly develop oil fields in Western Siberia, in partnership with Gazprom Neft.
Deliver has set for itself the mission of “solving the inefficiencies of the logistics market by applying modern technology.” Its online platform, launched in early 2017, helps companies find the closest shipping service provider and automates the process of ordering freight transport.
Deliver claims to place shippers’ orders with an instant pricing “in 2 seconds,” and find a match “in 15 minutes.” It says it has 59,000 confirmed drivers in its base of carriers in Russia.
The startup has also launched an international service based in Amsterdam. The European full truck load (FTL) market was estimated at more than $96 billion in 2015 with up to 23% empty kilometers because of ineffective transport planning, according to data cited by Deliver.
In June 2017, Deliver secured $3 million from the Russian fund Inventure Partners. In a previous round, in 2016, the startup had received a $5 million capital injection from A&NN Investments — the investment vehicle of Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut — and Singapore-based Amereus Group.
On its side the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF or FRII in Russian) confirmed an investment of 15 million rubles (approximately $230,000 at the current exchange rate) in another Russian startup operating in the same field. Oblachnyi Atlas (also known as “Aggregator” and “Time Saving Machine”) aggregates offers from courier and logistic services across the world, including DHL, DPD, FedEx, Pony Express, SPSR, TNT, and others., and provides related services.
