There is no denying that the startup culture in London is thriving! Indeed, it is becoming rather packed with flourishing companies, with stats from London & Partners showing that a record £437 million of funding was received by startups in the capital in just the first quarter of 2015.
With its diverse and international workforce, vibrant cultural scene and access to a wide variety of tech hubs, it is little wonder the capital is attracting an increasing number of young businesses with each passing month!
David Cameron’s former tech adviser, Rohan Silva believes that London stands out because it’s “a collision of fields and disciplines which isn’t happening anywhere else.” Indeed, it does seem that the capital is the place to be and this is especially apparent in the hugely competitive tech sector, although competition is also starting to build up amongst other sectors now too. For instance the capital has, over the last year, seen a steady increase in the number of delivery startups basing themselves in London.
Below, you’ll find five of what we have deemed the hottest of the delivery startups in London, although no doubt this list will need to be flexible as more and more startups enter into this ever more competitive space.
1. Jinn
Jinn is a delivery company with the following (and impressive) tagline of “get anything you want delivered in minutes”. The company ask you to identify what it is you exactly want, choosing from a variety of restaurants or stores in your city. They then send their couriers to buy the item/s and deliver it directly to you. Once you have ordered, you can track the courier at every step of the process. Payment wise, you can pay through their secure site or give cash to the courier on delivery.
Follow them @jinnapp
2. Valk Fleet
Valk Street has been operating somewhat under the radar, or at least they had been until they were recently outed by TechCrunch. The startup is a subsidiary of Delivery Hero and is a B2B service which works with restaurants and take out eateries, supplying them with delivery drivers. The company reduces the costs to its customers, who often want to cut costs where logistics and delivery aspects of their business are concerned. Restaurants and eateries that have signed up to the Valk Fleet’s app just book a driver as and when needed, i.e. when a food order has been placed, rather than having drivers on standby all the time.
3. Deliveroo
Deliveroo has been operating in London since 2012, when it officially launched and has gone from strength to strength over the years it has been operating. Its service is now available in 12 countries and 50 cities across the globe. Customers can use the service to order food from restaurants that don’t usually offer a take away service, making it a cut above take-out aggregators like Hungry House or Just Eat.
Follow them @Deliveroo
4. Delivery Cube
Delivery Cube describes itself as a “B2B technology driven logistics solution”. As with Valk Street, this startup also runs a fleet of delivery drivers for London restaurants and eateries to use as and when they need to. It is worth noting that this is not the first time the company’s founders have had experience building a logistics platform, or running a fleet of drivers, for Krupa Patel and Mitesh Patel, two of the startup’s founders, also founded MyDeliveryCab.
Follow them @DeliveryCubeUK
5. Stuart
This on-demand delivery startup offers stores and e-commerce sites a same-hour local delivery service for their customers. Even though the company has not officially launched yet and is operating in stealth, its founders Dominique Leca, Clement Benoit and Benjamin Chemla have managed to raise approximately €22 million in funding. They have been so successful no doubt because of each of their track records (Sparrow, the email client acquired by Google, restaurant delivery service Resto-In), and Citycake.fr) plus, of course, because of the popularity of their idea.
Follow them @Stuart_Delivery