[The F Word] All-women hyperlocal delivery startup Hey Deedee raises pre-seed funding of $500k

Hey Deedee, India’s only all-women last-mile delivery company, which currently operates in four cities, is looking to expand its footprint to 10 cities this year and build technology.  

Mumbai-based Hey Deedee, India′s first all-women instant parcel delivery service, has raised pre-seed funding of $500,000 from early-stage investor California-based Metaform Ventures LLC. The social enterprise that addresses the need for last-mile delivery by employing only women riders has also announced its entry into the four-wheeler warehouse-to-hub deliveries sector with women drivers.

Hey Deedee was established in 2016 by serial entrepreneurs Revathi Roy and Jagdish Doshi. Apart from catering to the delivery needs of its customers, Hey Deedee has also tied up with several companies and delivers for clients such as Amazon, The Curry Brothers, The Bohri Kitchen, Subway, Herbivore, Shophop, Brijwasi, Pizza Hut, and Ecomm Express, among others.

Hey Deedee delivers everything from gifts to grocery, documents, food, and couriers. The platform is generating revenues via per delivery model (with Amazon), management percentage model (with E-comm Express), and fixed income model.

So far, the platform, which has made over 250,000 deliveries for its alliance partners, is operational across Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, and Bangalore with a team of 100-plus Hey Deedee women riders.

In a statement released to the media, Revathi Roy, Co-founder of Hey Deedee, said, “The pre-seed funding has not only boosted our confidence, but will enable us to achieve our ambitious goals. Metaform Ventures LLC has seen the huge growth potential this sector holds, and our unique positioning makes it a strategic fit for them. This funding will fuel our expansion and leapfrog us into a growth trajectory. We are excited to soon launch our four-wheeler warehouse-to-hub deliveries with an all-women drivers team.”

Metaform Ventures is an investment fund founded by angel investor and serial entrepreneur Nilesh Javerchand Jain along with his family and close friends. The fund’s last investment was into Picostone, a startup offering home-automation solutions.

Empowering women

“We need women at all levels contributing to change the dynamics on reshaping of our economy. An empowered woman is powerful beyond measure and capable beyond description. I chose to back Revathi Roy for her enduring ledership on empowering women in logistics, a fast-growing, untapped (women-powered) sector with much-needed diversity. HeyDeedee continues to break down walls and defy stereotypes, creating a sector for women-empowered logistics, not just logistics but heavy logistics,” he said

Hey Deedee, along with employing women, is also skilling women via a 30-45 day training programme. Currently, the platform has 2,000-plus registered women, all in different stages of training. The startup has 62 riders on the job, in Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur, and Pune.

Revathi highlights that Hey Deedee’s mission is to train and employ 10,000 women by 2018. The platform aims to become the largest solution provider for hyperlocals, and offer last-mile delivery services within the city through its hub-and-spoke model.