Anyone who buys goods online has encountered a situation where the delivery method fails. Throughout Latin America, e-commerce purchases are expected to grow at a double-digit annual rate by 2024. This means that finding a reliable and cost-effective way to deliver these packages will become even more important.

Skydropx is a logistics management company headquartered in Mexico City, which enables companies to create an end-to-end automated delivery experience for customers, including more than 250 shipping options, tracking notifications via WhatsApp, estimated delivery time, and return management.

Founded in 2014 by Tavo Zambrano, Armando Solbes, Óscar Victorín and Daniel Alvarado, the company was able to reduce logistics costs by as much as 70%, and by being able to replace transportation options and actual costs, revenue increased by up to 3 times. Zambrano told TechCrunch that by avoiding The data was wrong, and the company's operations were optimized by 91%.

The company was initially engaged in the food delivery business, but transformed in 2015, when Zambrano saw an opportunity to help companies interpret the best transportation carriers.

"We see them trying to understand hundreds of operators, which one is the best option, which one is the most cost-effective, or which one is the fastest," he added. "We noticed that no one has solved this problem online."

Zambrano said that each country has its own unique challenges in shipping. This is mainly due to the different delivery operators in each country, which means that Skydropx must start from scratch.

The company intends to expand to other countries where e-commerce is developing, including Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Peru. To this end, the company announced on Tuesday that it has received a US$20 million Series A financing jointly led by Base10 Partners, Cometa and 645 Ventures.

TJ Nahigian, co-founder and managing partner of Base10 Partners, said that he met Zambrano and Solbes in 2018 when the ecosystem was still in the early stages. He re-examined the company because he saw a significant increase in global e-commerce, which has also affected adoption in Latin America, and he said that delivery and fulfillment are one of the challenges companies must overcome.

"Tavo and Armando are key enablers for the broad development of this ecosystem, and this is a huge opportunity," Nahigian said. "The scale of Skysdropx allows delivery and information to flow through the system in a more efficient manner. The penetration rate is still small, but we see that the penetration rate will change significantly by 10 to 100 times in the next few years. ."

After Skydropx participated in Y Combinator in 2018, this new funding was combined with the $7 million previously raised.

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Since then, the company has become profitable and has grown by more than 300% in 2020 alone. It now serves more than 50,000 customers and delivers more than 1.5 million pieces per month. Zambrano said that approximately 6% of package deliveries in Mexico are done through Skydropx.

In addition to entering other countries/regions, the company is also looking for fulfillment in other vertical areas, such as opening its own fulfillment center in Mexico and opening its own delivery branch, so that in addition to the website, customers can also deliver or pick up in person. He It is expected that 30 branches will be opened on street corners and convenience stores across Mexico in the next two weeks.

Aaron Holiday, co-founder and managing partner of 645 Ventures, met with the company at Y Combinator, although the company did not initially invest. He also saw that the company exceeded its goals year by year and hoped to participate in Series A, which was 645 Ventures' first investment in Latin America.

"In Latin America, e-commerce is experiencing a renaissance, first around financial technology, now with the emergence and proliferation of e-commerce," he said. "Customers talked about their products being critical to scaling up and achieving profitability, and Skydropx is becoming a major leader in automated fulfillment."

Last mile delivery in Latin America ready to take off