Russian delivery service TopDelivery raises funding

TopDelivery, which offers several integrated delivery services for online retail in Russia, has raised investments from Impulse VC. With this money, TopDelivery wants to further improve its logistics, customer services and IT system. TopDelivery also wants to expand its delivery area, which now covers the whole territory of Russia.

According to the website East-West Digital News, who spoke with TopDelivery’s co-founder Gleb Nikulin, it’s the company’s first venture funding, “putting aside an initial small angel investment”. It’s not clear how much money Impulse VC will invest in the Russian delivery service, but according to Nikulin it will provide them “a sufficient level of capital to remain stable even in case of recession.”

“This round of investment shows that the trend that was in the market three years ago, when investors mainly funded projects in the ecommerce sector, is changing, and that the interest to infrastructure projects with automation software for retailers is increasing”, Nikulin says on the website of Impulse VC.

‘Existing delivery services were expensive or unreliable’
Vadim Dyakow, who is an investment manager of Impulse VC, is confident that delivery services in Russia will soon approach the level of the best global representatives. And that’s about time, if we have to believe EWDN, an international resource on Russian digital industries. “A few years ago, while the Russian Post’s service was slow and unreliable, no e-commerce delivery company operating nationwide could provide quality delivery service across the country’s regions at moderate rates”, it claims. “Not only were existing providers expensive, but their service was not always reliable and, in most cases, their offer was too expensive and not flexible enough to meet the diversity of needs of e-commerce companies. IT integration with merchants’ CRM and inventory systems was impossible or difficult.”

Real alternative to the Russian Post
But according to EWDN, over the past few years TopDelivery has proven to be one of the players that have completely change the ecommerce shipment landscape in Russia. They say there are several service providers who offer a wide coverage at accessible prices and that these players propose a real alternative to the Russian Post in most big cities.

“Among the main players on this market are B2C-PL, Boxberry, CDEK DPD, IML and SPSR – not to mention the in-house delivery services of such major e-commerce companies as KupiVIP, OZON, the Otto Group and Sotmarket.”

TopDelivery was founded in early 2011 and now provides its service to online stores and their customers in 44 regions in Russia. Their supply chain included 2700 settlements as well as 54 pick-up points throughout the country.