Bangalore-based express delivery service platform, Hipship, has raised an undisclosed amount from Inara Capital and Scootsy founder Rishi Khiani led consortium.
The startup plans to use the funds to further strengthen its technology backbone and expand operations across the country.
Founded in 2013 by Ankit Sethia, Hipship, is a logistics startup that offers door-to-door pickup and delivery for customers and SMEs across the country.
Hipship, on the other side, allows consumers to use pickup and delivery service based on price, date of delivery, choice of vendor and other filters ensuring a hassle free process.
The startup presently aggregates delivery services provided by express distribution companies. The startup offers service in over 90,000 pincodes across India.
Hipship co-founder Ankit Sethia said, “The process of shipping has never been an easy one for the customer. Right from choosing a vendor to sometimes physically having to drop the package/documents off at the desired location, the entire procedure was riddled with problems. Often, it would also end up eating into a customer’s time and money. The company was founded to specifically address the inherent difficulty that consumers face while arranging shipments from the comfort of their home/office. The Hipship app is literally a four-click solution to all kinds of logistics needs.”
Ankit Sethia’s background in the logistics family business helped him understand the nitty-gritties of the trade. While he was staying in the US, he had a great opportunity to closely observe and appreciate the way logistics companies ran their operations. After moving back to India, he tried to introduce technology enhancements in an existing logistics company that had pioneered freight movement in India for over 65 years. This, however, did not work too well.
He realised that the logistics industry in India, despite the gigantic scale of its operation, was still suffering in the wake of outdated transport policies and lack of infrastructural automation. Armed with this fresh learning, Ankit decided to address the root causes by building the next-generation express delivery service organisation. This is how Hipship.com came into being.
Together the founding team of Hipship brings 65 years of hands-on expertise in the logistic business combined with over a decade of experience in the travel aggregation space. The combination of the two has paved the way for a rich consumer experience in the express delivery industry. Hipship is currently incubated at excubator, a Bangalore-based growth mapping ecosystem.
Rishi Khiani, founder and CEO of Scootsy, also an investor in Hipship, opined that it’s hard to deal with delays or damages in parcels/documents which predicts a huge potential for delivery services in India.
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