The Rise of Same-Day Delivery for All Retailers

Consumer expectations for rapid delivery, spurred by companies such as Amazon and Walmart, have become commonplace. Simultaneously, a growing consumer desire to support smaller businesses and independent retailers has emerged, particularly following the pandemic.

Swyft's Series A Funding

Swyft, a company focused on enabling affordable same-day delivery for retailers of all sizes, has recently secured $17.5 million in Series A funding. This investment round was jointly led by Inovia Capital and Forerunner Ventures, with additional participation from Shopify, alongside existing investors Golden Ventures and Trucks VC.

How Swyft Operates: A Marketplace Approach

Swyft functions as a marketplace, establishing connections between a network of shipping carriers and various vendors. Crucially, the company also develops software solutions designed to enhance the efficiency of these carriers.

This software transforms them into an expansive network capable of handling increased volume without requiring significant infrastructure investments.

Optimizing Existing Carrier Networks

The Swyft model allows multiple regional carriers to participate in delivering a single package without necessitating alterations to their established routes or expansions of their fleets. This represents a significant advantage in logistical efficiency.

Challenging the Delivery Giants

Historically, the ability to provide swift delivery has been a key differentiator for large corporations in both the shipping and retail sectors. Swyft aims to empower a collective of smaller entities – including local retailers, independent vendors, and regional carriers – to compete effectively.

Through the integration of software solutions, these smaller players can achieve a comparable scale and influence to industry giants without incurring substantial costs.

The Swyft Founding Team

Swyft was co-founded by Aadil Kazmi (CEO), Zeeshan Hamid (Head of Engineering), and Maraz Rahman (Head of Sales). Kazmi and Hamid both previously held positions at Amazon, focusing on data analysis and last-mile delivery operations.

Rahman contributed early experience from a venture capital-backed proptech startup.

Identifying a Market Need

The founders began exploring the reasons behind the limited availability of same-day delivery options for many retailers early in the previous year, ultimately deciding to address this identified gap in the market.

Software as the Core Differentiator

The central component of Swyft’s success isn’t simply the aggregation of couriers, but rather the software it provides to optimize their operations. As Swyft increases demand for these carriers, enhancing their efficiency becomes paramount.

The backend software facilitates the digitization and automation of processes traditionally performed manually.

Cost Savings for Retailers

Kazmi states that Swyft can offer delivery services at a cost that is 25-30% lower than existing alternatives.

Addressing Consumer Preferences

“A significant portion of my purchases originate from Amazon,” notes Eurie Kim. “While I’ve sought to support local and independent brands during the pandemic, Amazon’s fast and free shipping has set a high standard.”

Kim further suggests that a gap exists in the consumer experience, placing a considerable burden on merchants and retailers.

Swyft's Team and Growth

Currently, Swyft employs 16 full-time personnel, with a diverse team composition of 12% female and 75% people of color, as reported by the company.

Delivery Volume and Margin Improvement

Since April 2020, Swyft has successfully facilitated the delivery of over 180,000 packages. Gross margin has also improved, increasing from 78% to 82%, largely due to revenue generated from the software component of the business and its asset-light operational model.