Startup Grabr was founded in 2016 by a married couple Fedyaev Artem and Child Daria. The essence of the project is that people carry out orders of goods from 65 countries of the world, and random travelers deliver them for a certain amount of reward. Both parties “meet” on the site and discuss the possibilities of cooperation, and resource owners receive from this 7-15% of each transaction.
Resource Use Rules
Participants in transactions (travelers, buyers) simply register on the platform, indicate the date and time of the trip, and after a while they receive messages that people want to get from another country. Then there is the opportunity to make them an offer for delivery. Subsequently, you can subscribe to the newsletter and receive once a day notifications that such and such a number of people order such and such goods, and you can earn so much on their delivery.
Now 20 thousand active buyers and couriers and a large number of those who are selected abroad 1-2 times a year are registered on the platform. Delivery fees for couriers can range from $ 10 to $ 1,000, depending on the demand for the destination, the dimensions of the package and the time that the traveler can spend on delivery. The average earnings of active couriers averages between $ 200 and $ 350.
Investing in a promising startup
In June 2019, the project received another investment tranche from a new investor - the international venture fund SDVentures. A convertible loan issued by a startup project to a fund will subsequently be converted into a share in the company.
The idea of investing, according to Dmitry Volkov, co-founder of SDVentures, arose in the process of discussing Grabr’s promising business model with Foundation Capital venture fund registered in America.
For Grabr, this collaboration is an opportunity to quickly advance to the international market. In a strategic plan, cooperation is useful in terms of additional knowledge for solving specific problems, networking and contacts from the side of SDV, operating a global Internet company with a millionth audience from different parts of the world and a webpage at dating.com. To date, SDVentures is supporting a startup with courier fees from Latin America.
Previously, Russian and foreign investors, as well as international funds, invested in the project.
2018 Grabr Business Performance
Grabr's turnover for 2018 amounted to $ 15 million, the total amount paid to travel couriers was not disclosed. In the same year, the company tripled. The investment payback period under the plan is three years, that is, by the end of 2019, the spouses promise to show a profit. Last year, the service delivered 78 thousand orders to 65 countries, and the total amount of commissions paid to couriers reached $ 1.5 million.
Startup Development Prospects
The founders plan to spend the money received from SDVentures to enter other countries. The project interested residents of Peru, India and Egypt. Now tested in Asia and the Middle East. Already there is evidence of a high potential for the development of the project in Latin America. In Peru, for example, Grabr was in demand without marketing, advertising, or a local office.
According to Dmitry Volkov: “Grabr has the ability to integrate over time with eBay and Amazon, so products from these platforms are now delivered not around the world. The co-founder of the SDVentures fund predicts the appearance of the button "order goods through Grabr" on the sites of the above stores in the near future.And the founders, in turn, are already working on partnership projects with world financial organizations in order to increase the benefits of the project for buyers, couriers and company owners.
Achievements of spouses and directions for further development of activities
In 2018, both spouses were included in the list of American Forbs. “30 Under 30” includes businessmen under the age of 30 for changing their lives in our world for the better. In 2019, only Daria Reben became a member of the 30 Under 30 list, whose personal achievements, in addition to studying at the Higher School of Economics, working at Ernst & Young and her first startup, include investment attraction for the company in the amount of $ 14 million.
Today, the capacity of the e-commerce market, which the company is aiming at, is more than 2 trillion. $. And 50 million customers visiting the sites of Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, Apple, etc. cannot always get goods to remote corners of the world, because even for large players in the e-commerce market, not all directions are profitable.