Hermes Germany has increased its stake in same-day start-up Liefery from 28.5% to 68% to exploit growth potential beyond the traditional parcel business.
As part of the capital increase, Hermes now owns a majority stake in Liefery which will allow the start-up to expand its leading position on the market of same-day and time-definite deliveries in Germany. Liefery will continue operating as an independent company while its founders keep a stake in the company and remain significantly involved. In future, Liefery and Hermes will also jointly develop innovative solutions for the "new last mile".
"Liefery's development is unique to the German start-up and logistics market. We could increase our revenues by more than tenfold in 2016 and look forward to continuing the rapid growth with Hermes through innovative and consumer-friendly logistics solutions. Especially in the area of grocery deliveries, where we are already working with various companies, we see tremendous opportunities for the future,” Franz-Joseph Miller, Chairman of the Board and co-founder of Liefery, explained.
“As a shareholder, we are very satisfied with Liefery's strong development and would like to support the company as a strategic investor even more intensively. With the funding round, Liefery obtains sustainable planning security. At the same time, it will continue, thanks to its complete operational and cultural independence, to act as a partner for disruptive software and service solutions on the last mile,” Thomas Horst, Sales Director at Hermes Germany, said.
With a strong network of 3,500 couriers, Liefery delivers over 500,000 shipments per month serving, in addition to various retailers, major companies such as Amazon, Zalando, Gravis and Depot in more than 60 cities in Germany and Austria. Last year, Liefery also opened additional offices in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and the Ruhr to meet the growing demand in the urban regions. With the financing round, the start-up will invest mainly in the expansion of its software and intends to become more active abroad as well.
“The financing allows us, above all, to expand our software and technology platform, which connects the couriers, retailers and end-customers in a simple and transparent manner. This has contributed significantly to our rapid growth over the past few years and resulted in extremely high customer satisfaction, both among retailers and parcel recipients, with Net-Promoter-Score (NPS) of over 70,” Jan Onnenberg, Managing Director and co-founder of Liefery, commented.
In July 2015, Hermes Germany bought a 28.5% stake in Liefery to expand its portfolio with a same-day delivery option for e-retailers and other shippers. Based near Frankfurt, Liefery was hived off from the B2B same-day delivery provider time:matters in 2014.
