– which was likely to come in very useful to defend themselves against US giant Uber Freight’s arrival in Europe.
Fierce storm
For the rest of last year, it was a battle for survival for many supply chain start-ups in the fierce economic storm caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The young companies had to pull out all the stops while being tossed around on the huge waves of lockdowns and economic tur- bulence. A year ago, the Swiss start-up Luckabox, winner of the first European supply chain start-up contest in 2018, was on the brink of collapse due to several investors pulling out when the growth rate failed to live up to expectations. Then, to make matters worse, the num- ber of orders collapsed when the pan- demic broke out. “Retailers were using our platform to ship items directly from their stores,” says Aike Festini, who co- founded Luckabox together with Maite Mihm. “But they were forced to close their doors during the first lockdown. Fortunately, we were able to make use of the Swiss government’s support package. We wouldn’t have survived otherwise.” The turnaround for Luckabox started less than a month later. Retailers with- out their own web shops got creative and launched practical solutions such as a WhatsApp-based ordering service. That enabled them to continue taking orders and re-start deliveries directly from their stores. “Besides that, we adapted one of our own apps to introduce a shop- ping service. People could use it to order groceries on behalf of their parents, for example. Then we would go to the near- est supermarket to buy those groceries and deliver them. For some people, that was the only way to shop for food.” The rapid increase in revenue gave the remaining investors a reason to con- tinue investing, plus some of the inves- tors who had pulled out returned and a number of new investors got involved too. Partly thanks to that, Luckabox suc- ceeded in adjusting its proposition and signing contracts with new customers such as Ikea and Valora, a convenience retailer with stores throughout Switzer- land. As a result, the company ultimately achieved 530% order growth in 2020. The
all-time high came in December 2020, when it had 23 times more orders than in December 2019. Similarly, the Dutch start-up Quicargo, an online marketplace for transport, saw its revenue triple during the coronavi- rus crisis in the spring of last year. This young and agile company was able to rap- idly expand its carrier network, allowing carriers to secure orders for additional shipments and thus generate additional income for themselves.
Storm damage and takeovers
Not all start-ups weathered last year’s COVID-19 storm. The German start-up Sharehouse and its British competitor Stowga, two providers of on-demand warehousing – a kind of Airbnb for pal- lets – vanished into the waves of the pan- demic despite both having raised several million euros in capital. French competi- tor SpaceFill did survive the storm and even managed to raise €7 million in addi- tional funding in September 2020. The Dutch player Stockspots also managed to pull through thanks to the rapid growth in cross-border e-commerce and the asso- ciated sudden need for local stock points. Even Uber Freight’s European launch, which had been announced with great fanfare, failed miserably. The growth in logistics matches for road freight failed to materialize and the German scale-up Sennder acquired Uber’s freight activi- ties in September 2020, having already taken over its French rival Everoad a few months earlier, in June. The COVID- 19 pandemic was severely affecting the profitability of the logistics sector and the acquisition was a way of saving costs, according to Sennder’s CEO. French start-up Qopius, specialized in intelligent image recognition for retail shelves, was acquired by Singapore-based Trax Retail in early 2020. As a result of this acquisition, Qopius has disappeared from the Maturity Matrix of European start-ups.
E-scooter adventure
Luckabox’s ultimate success is the result of a long and winding search for the right product/market combination. Upon its launch in 2018, Luckabox wanted to pro- vide a platform to bring together supply
Aike Festini: “Persistence is what enabled us to survive. We didn’t give up on finding the right product/market combination. In that respect, it’s a little ironic that the pandemic has increased the need for our original solu- tion: on-demand delivery. It seems like we launched our concept too early in 2018.”
and demand in last-mile delivery. Swiss retailer Jelmoli, for example, used the platform for shoppers who wanted to have their purchases delivered to their home, workplace or hotel after visiting its exclusive department store in Zurich. “But that never really got off the ground. Many of our customers placed just a few orders a month. Maybe there are some people who want a new T-shirt delivered quickly, but they are not willing to pay €17 for the privilege. The construction sector was the only industry where the concept caught on to any real extent, thanks to builders who needed new tools quickly. There is less price sensitivity in the con- struction industry, simply because the pain is greater,” explains Festini. Luckabox followed this up with a venture involving e-scooter rental companies, but continued on page 35
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RESILIENCE & TALENT
SUPPLY CHAIN MOVEMENT, No.40, Q1 2021
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