The round was co-led by General Catalyst, an early Packfleet investor and Voyager Ventures, a leading early-stage climate fund. All of Packfleet’s existing investors participated in the funding round, a roster that includes Creandum, Entree Capital and Founder Collective.
The newly acquired funds will bolster Packfleet’s established presence in the London delivery market, where the company achieved 5x growth throughout 2023, and support the expansion of its increasing roster of merchants. The funds will also support the development of Pathfinder, the proprietary routing software that has been instrumental in the company’s meteoric rise.
Around 500 million parcels are delivered in London each year and after experiencing poor service when parcels arrived broken or went missing the founders had the idea for Packfleet aiming to use tech to make sending and receiving a parcel as easy as ordering a takeaway for 10 million Londoners.
Since launch in 2021, the B Corp certified courier has grown to more than 35 HQ employees, and now Packfleet’s 100+ drivers deliver for hundreds of businesses, including leading consumer brands Who Gives A Crap, Pizza Pilgrims and HURR.
Throughout the company’s growth, Packfleet has maintained a parcel failure rate of only 0.07% – 10x less than the leading traditional courier – all whilst offering employees a wealth of industry-leading benefits.
Tristan Thomas, CEO and founder of Packfleet, said: “We’re delighted with the fundraise, and to be continuing our close work with General Catalyst. I’m also very excited to be welcoming Voyager on board, bringing their deep climate expertise to the world of logistics.
“Our merchants are increasingly seeing how their customers care about a business’ environmental credentials, and investors are no different.
“When we founded Packfleet, we set out to create a tech-enabled courier service that made deliveries better for everyone – not just customers, but merchants and drivers too.
“We’ve proven that our model works, and with the backing of General Catalyst and Voyager, we look forward to continuing to change the logistics sector for good.”
Juliet Bailin, partner at General Catalyst added: “Since our first investment in Packfleet’s pre-seed, we have been blown away by their customers’ positive feedback on the product and delivery experience. The team has proven they can execute at speed and we believe they have made excellent progress on product, operations, revenue growth, and margin improvement.
The e-commerce market in the UK is one of the largest in Europe, and we are excited to support Tristan and team on their next stage of growth.”
“Packfleet is a breath of fresh air for those merchants. Their human approach and in-house technology are combining to revolutionise the industry and set a new standard for couriers – one that’s intuitive and efficient for everyone involved.
“The business has made great strides since our initial investment in 2021. We look forward to supporting Packfleet well into the future and helping the business strengthen its foothold in the market.”
Sarah Sclarsic, Founding Partner of Voyager commented: “Decarbonisation makes good business sense in every sector of our economy. We believe Packfleet will be foundational in accelerating the decarbonisation of last mile logistics at a global level, starting in the U.K.”
“Packfleet’s market-leading consumer experience and carbon-neutral operations are creating the future of parcel delivery. Their adjacent software products will make it easier than ever for companies and consumers all over the world to reduce their emissions.”
“Throughout this process we have been impressed with the founding team’s laser focus on attractive unit economics at scale. We are delighted to partner with Packfleet and look forward to supporting the team on this exciting journey.”
About Packfleet
All-electric courier Packfleet, is a tech-enabled carbon-neutral courier based in London that’s revolutionising the world of ecommerce delivery. The B Corp startup is both greener and fairer than its competitors.
Packfleet was founded by a team of early-Monzo employees in 2021 and now ships regularly for hundreds of businesses all over London.
The company is powered by its own purpose-built tech stack that can predict delivery times within the minute, and map journeys for drivers making sure they are on the most efficient route possible.
Since the courier was founded, Packfleet has received over $21m in funding from VCs such as General Catalyst, Voyager and Creandum.
About General Catalyst
General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that invests in powerful, positive change that endures — for our entrepreneurs, our investors, our people, and society. We support founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond to build companies that withstand the test of time. With offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City, London, Berlin and Boston, the firm has helped support the growth of businesses such as: Airbnb, Deliveroo, Guild, Gusto, Hubspot, Illumio, Lemonade, Livongo, Oscar, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker. For more: www.generalcatalyst.com.
About Voyager
Voyager invests in climate technology companies in North America and Europe. Following the launch of Voyager’s $100M Fund I, Voyager recently announced a $100m Series A-focused Select Fund to further invest in climate technology companies building the foundational products and services of a decarbonized global economy.
Voyager founders Sarah Sclarsic and Sierra Peterson together have 28 years of domain expertise in climate tech through company-building, policymaking, academic research and investing. The fund will be opening their European office in London later this year.
