Lithuanian delivery disrupter Ziticity closes 2.2 million-euro investment round

Ziticity, the Lithuanian start-up set do disrupt the delivery industry, has secured 2.2 million euros in a seed funding round.

The round was led by NordicNinja VC and was backed by Japanese companies such as JBIC, Honda, Omron, and Panasonic. SuperHero Capital VC, Practica Capital, Startup Wise Guys, and Superangel VC also contributed.

Ziticity was founded in 2017, and allows its clients to easily schedule same day or even same hour deliveries through its on-demand fleet of couriers. This enables local businesses such as grocery shops or restaurants to bypass both traditional shipping companies and food delivery services where high commissions are paid.

In contrast, when companies use Ziticity, they don’t pay commission, pick up or set up fees. They only pay for each completed delivery.

The company also offers solutions for e-commerce and provides courier services for offices. The Ziticity platform can be integrated into existing business infrastructure though APIs or through plugins on select e-commerce systems such as Shopify and OpenCart.

“Local e-commerce cannot compete on product price with Amazon and Alibaba. To have a fighting chance with global tech giants that are building monopolies in e-commerce and restaurant delivery space, we have been able to build a direct service for local merchants to compete locally,” says Laimonas Noreika, the CEO of Ziticity.

According to data from the Lithuanian start-up, 60 per cent of last-mile deliveries are carried out within a five kilometre radius of the pick up location. Since these deliveries are short, couriers are able to use a wide range of transportation including cars, scooters, and bicycles.

With its approach to serving as an on-demand delivery fleet, Ziticity has found success in France and the Baltics, where 2,700 different companies use its services, including Telia, Tele2, and Pizza Hut. Thanks to the technologies used, the average delivery time is 42 minutes and couriers can do between four and six deliveries per day. The company also says their couriers earn on average 15 per cent more than what other delivery platforms offer.

Achieving a steady growth of 22 per cent month over month, the company is now looking to spread across other European countries.

Future expectations in the industry are good, according to Tomosaku Sohara, managing partner at NordicNinja VC.

“The delivery industry is expected to increase dramatically and 2.1 billion people are expected to buy goods online by 2021. On top of that, current global pandemic changes people’s behavior and habits like how they buy, sell and eat at an unprecedented rate of change. We believe that Ziticity’s solution is a kind of silver lining approach for the industry and end-users which need to adjust for new normal,” he says.

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