SINGAPORE (Apr 19): Park N Parcel (PNP), a last-mile logistics start-up under NUS Enterprise’s portfolio, concluded its Mar 2018 seed round investment with $850,000 of seed funding led by Far East Ventures-backed Tri5 Ventures and a group of angel investors.
Established in Jan 2017, the start-up was founded to help eliminate missed parcel deliveries by allowing online shoppers to collect their purchases from a pool of “Parkers”, namely individuals or retail stores that have registered themselves to help collect parcels on behalf of their neighbours.
The parcels can weigh a maximum of 8 kg, with a maximum cumulative cubic dimension of 100 cm.
PNP launched a Mall-to-Mall delivery option in Nov 2017, and claims to deliver more than 15,000 parcels per month in Singapore alone.
According to information found on PNP's website as of 18 April, Parkers are paid by the company based on the total transactions made for the month at $1 per parcel, while consumers are charged $3 for each parcel collected via the Parker service.
In a Thursday release, PNP says it will use the fresh funding to strengthen its core leadership team as well as expand into Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan by 4Q18. It will also continue to scale its clientele base, which, according to the firm, has seen a steady 30% m-o-m growth over the past year.
Lastly, the start-up says its newly-secured funding will aid it in helping online business-to-consumer (B2C) and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplaces grow, as its business delivers “great service levels, lowest cost and reach” to consumers.
One such example given is PNP’s upcoming collaboration with Carousell to offer Carousell’s users a one-day free delivery promotion in the month of May.
The firm is also working with businesses such as AirFrov and Easyparcel in the areas of website API integration as well as cross-marketing campaigns to build awareness and usage.
“Our upcoming promotion with Carousell is an example of how Park N Parcel seeks to benefit the online community marketplace, by providing an on-demand concierge service with affordable delivery options. As we continue to work with our esteemed partners to grow their clientele base, we want to tap into the logistically underserved parts of the region and expand into both the B2C and C2C segment,” says Erik Cheong, co-founder and CMO of PNP.
