Roadrunnr in talks with Sequoia, Nexus & others for fresh funding

Hyperlocal delivery startup Roadrunnr is negotiating to raise a fresh round of funding from existing backers Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners besides other new investors, sources said.

In a news report quoting sources, The Economic Times said that Roadrunnr has already raised $10 million from Sequoia and Nexus. However, a spokesperson for RoadRunnr denied the same.

Sources said that talks are at an advanced stage but no deal has been signed yet.

Carthero Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs Roadrunnr, had raised $11 million in Series A funding from venture capital firm Blume Ventures, besides Sequoia Capital, Nexus Ventures and others in July. Earlier this month, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner also put money in Roadrunnr.

Founded in 2015 by ex-Flipkart employees Mohit Kumar and Arpit Dave, Roadrunnr provides hyper-local logistic services to merchants, restaurants and e-commerce companies, enabling them to deliver orders by connecting with a local delivery fleet. It also partners with students, drivers and others on a part time basis to provide delivery. It differs from other aggregators by charging merchants a flat fee based on their shipment size rather than the value of the order.

Roadrunnr competes with the likes of Pickingo, Grab, Quickli, Shadowfax and Opinio among others.

In September, ShadowFax Technologies Pvt Ltd, a hyperlocal delivery services startup for restaurants and retailers, secured $9 million (Rs 60 crore) in Series A funding from Eight Roads Ventures, the investment arm of Fidelity International Ltd.

Zomato recently invested in hyperlocal delivery startup Pickingo. In July, Bangalore-based Opinio secured nearly $1.6 million from Accel Partners. Two months ago, grocery delivery startup Grofers obtained $35 million. Other players in the logistics field include Delhivery, Townrush and GoJavas.

Yesterday, Delhivery said that it has put additional money in on-demand logistics service Parcelled. In the delivery technology space, Bangalore-based startup Locus, which is known for delivery automation software, obtained seed funding recently.