On-demand reimagined:

HomeRide bundles downtown into one app and secures pre- seed funding

The Retail Tech startup HomeRide receives pre-seed funding led by company builder XPRESS Ventures. The start-up convinced with the concept of combining the product availability of local retailers on one platform and enabling customers to receive cross-shop same-day deliveries for the first time.

This purchasing pledge is to be implemented in an economically sustainable manner with the help of technological integration with well-known retail chains and logistics partners and without the need to build up additional logistics capacities. In addition to XPRESS, early-stage investor SchneiderGolling and business angels such as Xentral CEO and founder Benedikt Sauter, hagebau Connect CEO Marco Werner, and start-up recruiters Melina Brandstetter and Felix Finger are participating in the current round.

One city, one store

The idea of HomeRide is based on a close partnership with the city center, making intelligent use of existing warehouse infrastructures and location advantages. Customers can order products from connected local retailers via the HomeRide app and receive them the same day in the selected time window. In particular, compound purchases can be combined, as is already common on horizontal e-commerce platforms.

What is new, however, is that HomeRide bundles household electronics, medicines and groceries, for example, in a shopping cart and makes them available from local retailers.

The technological heart of the system is HomeRide’s software, which displays prices, product availability and current offers from connected retail partners in real time. Target group-specific curation of product categories and intelligent search metrics serve both everyday needs and short-term errands. Retailers integrated into HomeRide benefit from an additional online channel through their joint offering, while the additionally planned Click&Collect is intended to attract further customers to the stores.

For last-mile delivery, HomeRide relies on a partner network of agile, sustainable service providers. Route-based cargo bikes and, in the future, electric vans save both CO2 and long waiting times for customers. Through combined processes in pickup and picking between logistics providers and local retailers, HomeRide uses existing warehouses and delivery fleets without building up its own capacities. While the focus has so far been on downtown Cologne, board areas are also being targeted as attractive destinations.

Future of the Delivery Economy

Matthias Friese, Managing Partner at XPRESS Ventures, says of the funding: “On-demand defines convenience today. However, HomeRide is not the next quick commerce startup – rather, they are creating a first-of-its-kind, truly over-the-top retail goods infrastructure. We see the potential in the team and in their technology to take the delivery economy further.”

“Our goal is to make downtown available online. However, a sole retailer doesn’t have the product and online reach needed to do that. We are therefore bundling department store chains and “local heroes” into a digital shopping experience for customers. In this way, we are working with and not against the retail sector, especially in the current transformation phase,” says Hendrik Lallensack, Co-Founder and COO of HomeRide.

HomeRide currently has connects over 30 partner retailers, including MediaMarktSaturn, BUTLERS, SuperBioMarkt and toom. Customers in the Cologne area can already order online and access an inventory of over 1 million products. In the course of the year, rollout to other metropolitan regions is planned.

Source PIABO PR GmbH