Ride sharing delivery startup Roadie has launched itself with a series A funding round totaling $10 million. The investors in the round include UPS, Warren Stephens of Stephens Inc., TomorrowVentures and others.
The company was founded by Marc Gorlin, who's the CEO. Gorlin is also a cofounder of Kabbage, which provides working capital to small businesses. Gorlin will remain involved with the company as Chairman of the Board.
The concept for the app, which launches today in iOS and Google Play stores, is pretty simple. If you need something delivered from one city to another, you go to the app to see if there are any drivers making the trip during your time frame. A fee is agreed to and the driver delivers the package.
In addition to the fee, drivers who use Roadie are also entitled to roadside assistance and other benefits, and users are able to track their package along the entire trip.
"There’s someone leaving somewhere going somewhere all the time," Gorlin told me. "Thus you have Roadie."
The idea, Gorlin continued, is that there are people all over the place making regular commutes or trips on the road. That's a lot of unused transportation capacity, so why not take advantage of it?
Test screenshot of Roadie "gigs." (Credit: Roadie)
"These are people who are just taking stuff where they were already going to go," Gorlin said. "The first gig was a guy who brought a package of t-shirts to Tampa. He made 64 bucks for the same trip he was going to drive without us."
The company itself is focused on the southeastern United States, though it plans to expand shortly. Some of the initial marketing has been focused on SEC football games and Nascar events, with the idea of attracting drivers who are looking to make a little extra money on some of their regular trips.
"You can’t hit anything in the South better than that," investor Warren Stephens told me. "And a lot of those people drive around to a lot of cities."
Of course, in examining the business model of Roadie, you can't help but compare it to the big ride share duo of Uber and Lyft. Both companies are well-established and have been experimenting with courier and delivery services.
"Oh yeah, they could easily do it," Stephens acknowledged to me. "But Uber’s a taxi, basically. It’s not people already driving from Birmingham to Atlanta who look on Roadie and say yeah I could take that package."
Court Coursey, a managing partner of TomorrowVentures, concurred with this sentiment.
"I think the competitors like Lyft, Uber, etc validate the market," Coursey told me via email.
"We were attracted to this business because of Marc's proven track [record] and we like businesses that transform legacy businesses such as shipping and make it a good value proposition for everyone," he continued.
"All these things are a longshot," said Stephens. "But I think the concept is so simple that it’s got a chance to work."
