Shadowfax gets funding from Snapdeal founders! Raises about $300,000

Hyper-local logistics startup Shadowfax has received an investment of about $300,000 in an angel round led by Indian entrepreneurs such as Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal of Snapdeal, Zishaan Hayath of Powai Lake Ventures, and Prashant Malik of Limeroad.

“We believe that improving the existing state of last mile delivery and hyperlocal logistics would enable all future business growth. At Shadowfax, we are looking to build India’s most formidable, credible and fastest merchant delivery service,” Abhishek Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Shadowfax, said in a statement on Monday.

The Gurgaon-based company has invested in technology that uses multiple modes of communication to provide relevant solutions. It employs integrated GPS tracking functions and algorithms in its product to improve the efficiency of the network.

“We have incorporated several features that leverage our proprietary end-to-end capacity planning algorithm to put the merchant directly in touch with the rider, geo-location for tracking orders, rider route planning, and order coupling,” said Vaibhav Khandelwal, CTO and co-founder, Shadowfax.

Since its launch in May 2015, Shadowfax had an average delivery volume processing of about 3,000 orders a day and 120-150 outlets that are currently utilizing its service for last mile delivery in the Delhi-NCR region. The growth of the company has been driven through referrals.

“We have already created a niche for our services in Delhi-NCR and are looking to strengthen our present team of 35+ employees and 350+ riders and expand into 10 more cities within the next one year,” said Abhishek.

He added: “We have opted for a partial crowd-sourced model, where anyone who wishes to be a rider can join our rider pool. However, every rider is imparted vocational skill based training before deployment.”

Shadowfax charges its customers on a pay-per-delivery model based on distance and required service quality. It provides merchants a flexible, technology-driven framework incorporating features such as automatic rider scheduling, seamless app communication, instant feedback, geo-based tracking, and location-based rider allocation.

(Image: Indiatimes)