Around 500 million parcels are delivered in London each year. After experiencing poor service when parcels arrived broken or went missing, the founders had the idea for Packfleet, a tech-enabled carbon-neutral courier headquartered in London. It aims to use tech to make sending and receiving a parcel as easy as ordering a takeaway for 10 million users in the city.
Now, the sustainable courier service has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by General Catalyst, an early Packfleet investor and Voyager Ventures, a leading early-stage climate fund. All the existing investors, including Creandum (backed Embat and Monta), Entree Capital and Founder Collective participated in the round. Previously, the company raised £8 million in an oversubscribed seed round in 2022.
The fresh funds will bolster Packfleet’s presence in the London delivery market, where the company achieved 5x growth throughout 2023, and support the expansion of its increasing roster of merchants. The funds will also support the development of Pathfinder, its proprietary routing software that has been instrumental in the company’s meteoric rise.
All-electric courier service
Packfleet, the all-electric courier startup is a tech-enabled carbon-neutral courier based in London revolutionising the world of e-commerce delivery. The B Corp startup is both greener and fairer than its competitors. The company brings the tech that you’d expect from Deliveroo and Uber to the world of parcel delivery.
The company is powered by its own purpose-built tech stack that can predict delivery times within the minute, and map journeys for drivers making sure they are on the most efficient route possible.
Sustainability is its focus
Founded in 2021 by Tristan Thomas, Hugo Cornejo, and Josh Garnham, Packfleet offers live tracking on the user’s phone for each delivery and there is an option to change anything about the delivery (even the address) at any point on your parcel’s journey. It offers a host of benefits for merchants, including flexible collection windows, live updates on every delivery, built-in instant chat for customer support, and direct Shopify integration.
The company is accelerating the green transition for home deliveries through 100% electric van fleet charged by renewable electricity, a tree planted for every single delivery, and carbon offsetting for every staff member (including drivers) by default.
Tristan Thomas, CEO and founder of Packfleet, said: “We’re delighted with the fundraise, and to be continuing our close work with General Catalyst. I’m also very excited to be welcoming Voyager on board, bringing their deep climate expertise to the world of logistics. Our merchants are increasingly seeing how their customers care about a business’ environmental credentials, and investors are no different.”
Juliet Bailin, partner at General Catalyst added: “Since our first investment in Packfleet’s pre-seed, we have been blown away by their customers’ positive feedback on the product and delivery experience. The team has proven they can execute at speed and we believe they have made excellent progress on product, operations, revenue growth, and margin improvement. The e-commerce market in the UK is one of the largest in Europe, and we are excited to support Tristan and team on their next stage of growth.”
Sarah Sclarsic, Founding Partner of Voyager commented: “Decarbonisation makes good business sense in every sector of our economy. We believe Packfleet will be foundational in accelerating the decarbonisation of last mile logistics at a global level, starting in the U.K. Packfleet’s market-leading consumer experience and carbon-neutral operations are creating the future of parcel delivery. Their adjacent software products will make it easier than ever for companies and consumers all over the world to reduce their emissions.”
