In mid-2014, soon after the launch of DeliveryCircle, founder Vijaya Rao made her ambitions clear: In two or three years, she expected the tech-based, same-day delivery service to be a global brand.
By January 2015, the company had expanded to Philadelphia, South Jersey, Maryland, D.C., and Northern Virginia. Today, four years after the startup’s launch, DeliveryCircle is in 19 states, and recently closed a round of Series A funding from a syndicate of financial and strategic supply chain investors, led by Cambridge Capital, NFI and others.
“We intend to use the funds to expand into more locations and include a larger portfolio of offerings,” Rao recently told Technical.ly. “This kind of strategic investment helps us not just financially but with wealth of experience in the logistics space that’s very valuable for a growth stage company like DeliveryCircle.”
DeliveryCircle’s concept is simple: Use the gig economy to get items from Point A to Point B using a pool of drivers, many already utilizing their cars for income. Sort of like a courier service meets GrubHub meets Uber, with few limits on what can be delivered (no drugs, firearms, tobacco or extremely valuable items) and virtually no restrictions on who can use the service if they’re in a service area. It’s B2B, B2C and C2C — it can be used to deliver a business contract across town, send an item to a customer, or return a borrowed tool to a friend. Your favorite restaurant across town doesn’t deliver or you live outside its delivery zone? No problem.
It’s a growing industry with a few competitors — though some, including Uber’s own UberRUSH service, have gone under while DeliveryCircle has grown, unable to strike the right balance.
While the company has outgrown the New Castle County Emerging Enterprise Center small business incubator where it grew from a small Delaware startup to a regional business, it hasn’t outgrown Delaware. Now located in the Christiana Corporate Center in Newark, DeliveryCircle is putting down roots where it started.
“We chose to stay in Delaware,” Rao said.
DeliveryCircle is currently hiring in Delaware. To sign up to become a driver, go to deliverycircle.com.
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