British last mile delivery start-up Fin, founded by a former Google executive, has acquired rival Urb-It.
Launched last year, Fin operates in London, delivering consumer goods for retailers, and plans to use the tech from the acquisition to bolster its position in the British capital with an eye on eventual internationalization.
Fin, which raised $5 million last year, carries out deliveries in a city on behalf of retail partners through a network of micro hubs where goods are stored for delivery within urban areas. These deliveries are carried out by riders on cargo e-bikes.
Rich Pleeth, a former executive at Google and European ride-hail player Bolt, said that the company has invested heavily in AI and machine learning to automate dynamic routing for its riders to make deliveries more efficient.
Pleeth said that a major part of this efficiency is removing delivery vans from cities in favor of e-bikes.
“Whether you order an iPhone or you order a new sweater, it will show up at your doorstep in usually a big diesel van,” he said, adding that vans exacerbate congestion in cities and churn out emissions.
“The majority of vans are under half-full in London and that’s where these e-bikes come in. They have a small electric motor, we can put about 200 kilos (400lbs) in there and we can make cities more livable by taking these vans off the road.”
The acquisition of Urb-It gives the British company access to a deep pool of partners including fashion retail giant Zara and Chinese e-commerce players Shein and AliExpress.
Fin will now be able to plug into the systems of these customers quickly to manage their parcel deliveries, Pleeth said, whereas otherwise it would have taken much longer.
“It all takes time from the customer’s tech team [to integrate into these systems]. Getting to a priority on their tech team when we’re a brand-new company was a big issue.”
Acquiring these customers and tech integrations will significantly ramp up Fin’s volume: “We’ll now be able to plug into AliExpress which will be giving us thousands of parcels a day.”
While Urb-It has some business in Spain and France, Pleeth said that Fin is focused on nailing the London market for now but the company will be looking to expand when the time is right.
“It does mean an expansion, it’s not immediate but we will be expanding. We want to make sure that we cement ourselves in London and make sure that we work out all of the kinks in the technology,” he said.
“We will be expanding and we’ll probably do more acquisitions.”
Fin raised $5 million last year from investors to finance its business in London.
It is backed by MaC Venture Capital and ProChain Ventures, which invests in supply chain start-ups.
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