NordicNinja invests in Lithuanian urban logistics platform Ziticity
NordicNinja VC has made a seed investment in Ziticity, Lithuanian last-mile delivery service. The investment was made together with Superhero Capital VC (FIN), Practica Capital (LT) and Superangel VC (EE) to fund Ziticity’s expansion in Europe.
Founded in 2017, Ziticity empowers local business owners to compete with Amazon dominance by providing the platform for affordable same-day deliveries. With an on-demand solution, local e-shops and restaurants can optimize and distribute deliveries in real-time without usual distribution centers and paying high commission fees to shipping companies or food delivery platforms.
According to Ziticity’s data, 60% of last-mile deliveries are within a five-kilometer radius from pickup to the drop-off location. Short delivery distances widen the possibility for couriers to use any means of transportation including cars, bicycles, e-scooters, etc.
Since its launch, Ziticity has been a success in France and the Baltics, used by over 220 companies like Telia, Tele2, Pizza Hut, and Euroapotheca pharmacies’ network. Thanks to urban batching logic, the reached average delivery time is 42 minutes and couriers are able to complete 4-6 deliveries per hour. This keeps prices affordable to the shopper, while couriers are able to earn +15% more per hour than in competing platforms.
The company has been steadily growing 22% month over month ever since the launch with a sharp 44% revenue increase during COVID-19.
“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 founder and CEO of ZITICITY who built the company out of personal frustration.
“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 – how they buy, sell and eat – at an unprecedented rate of change. We believe that Zitycity’s solution is a kind of silver lining approach for the industry and end-users which need to adjust for new normal,” added Tomosaku Sohara, Managing Partner at NordicNinja VC.
After successful piloting, Ziticity is preparing for entering several countries in Europe.
About Ziticity
Ziticity helps local merchants to compete with Amazon and Alibaba dominance by providing affordable same-day deliveries. Zitycity connects their e-commerce stores with urban hubs, optimizes routes and distributes heavy-batched deliveries to on-demand couriers for maximum efficiency. www.ziticity.com
About NordicNinja VC
NordicNinja VC is an official auxiliary name of JB Nordic Ventures Oy, which is a Helsinki-based joint venture by JBIC IG Partners and BaltCap. JB Nordic Ventures provides investment advisory to JB Nordic Fund I SCSp.
