Amazon Prime and Gorillas may not be of much help if you're in India, Russia, Vietnam, the Philippines or Russia. Dostavista, a crowdsourced service that delivers same-day services, is similar to DoorDash Drive (Malaysia) or Lalamove(Malaysia). The startup was founded in Russia. It initially created a game in which players were asked to deliver virtual goods, and then pivot to the real deal. This left-of-field approach has allowed it to expand into countries that are not normally served by larger delivery companies.
Borzo, the Amsterdam HQ-d startup, is changing its name to reflect the unification of 10 countries. It also raised $35 million in Series C funding from Mubadala, a UAE-based investor. VNV Global, RDIF and Flashpoint Venture Capital were also involved.
The pandemic clearly increased the demand for same-day, affordable delivery of goods in both developing and developed countries.
Borzo claims its gig economy workforce allows delivery via any route and any transport, regardless of weight or size. According to the startup, algorithms have been developed to optimize multiple parallel delivery routes by taking into consideration geographical routes, package contents, couriers, as well as other factors.
Borzo founder Mike Alexandrovski stated that the closing of this round allowed us to continue our efforts towards becoming one of the most trusted courier delivery companies in each market we serve. We believe it is important to maintain brand integrity and operational synchronicity in order to achieve this goal. Borzo was our new name.
Borzo was founded in 2012 and now claims to have 2 million customers, 2.5M couriers, and operations in 10 countries, including Brazil, India and Indonesia. Borzo claims it fulfills more than 3M orders each month and its annual gross revenues run rate is close to $150M.
Faris Al Mazrui is the Head of Russia & CIS for Mubadala. He stated that the true shift in eCommerce was due to the convenience and reliability of online delivery services. Borzo is a team that has a clear vision about the opportunities in the rapidly evolving on-demand delivery market. They are now competitive in 10 international markets and have gone global.
We covered Borzos $15 Million Series B round, which was led by Vostok New Ventures. It included participation from existing investors Flashpoint & AddVenture.
