GeoPost acquires delivery startup Stuart

GeoPost, the global subsidiary of the French Groupe La Poste, has acquired “last-mile” shipping and delivery startup Stuart.

Conditions of the deal remain undisclosed, however it need to be famous that GeoPost already held a 22 for every cent stake in the French startup, having led its €22 million Series A spherical in late 2015 just before the business had even launched.

Launched the identical calendar year by Clement Benoit (who earlier established restaurant shipping and delivery assistance Resto-In), and Benjamin Chemla (co-founder and earlier CEO of Citycake.fr, which Resto-In acquired in late 2014), Stuart established out to disrupt final-mile logistics with much better technological innovation and a fleet of couriers to permit merchants to offer you prospects identical-hour shipping and delivery.

It does this by means of the Stuart web and mobile app and via an API that means merchants of any measurement, which includes main chains, can establish the assistance into their present shopper-going through choices.

The concept was to offer you anything akin to Amazon Primary Now for nearby merchants and merchants. But as opposed to Amazon, Stuart doesn’t have to contend with providing merchandise from out of city warehouses or logistics hubs but is exclusively focusing on the final-mile and providing merchandise from within just a city.

Also of observe, the startup features multiple modes of transportation, from pushbikes, motorbikes to vans, so it can deliver various measurement packages.

Operating in France, U.K., and Spain, the business suggests it facilitates “thousands” of deliveries for every day for more than 500 prospects, which includes Carrefour, Franprix, Burger King, The Kooples, Pizza Hut, and Cdiscount.

In July final calendar year, Stuart also signed a partnership with Just Try to eat in France to enable the just take-out marketplace’s restaurant associates outsource shipping and delivery, though that doesn’t even get a point out in today’s accompanying press launch, so make of that what you will.

Paul-Marie Chavanne, GeoPost’s CEO, suggests in a statement: “This choice logically follows our investments in Stuart above the previous 2 yrs. Stuart completes our shipping and delivery assistance at a nearby degree and embodies the potential of convey city shipping and delivery, a fast increasing strategic activity for us.”

Stuart founders Benoit and Chemla add: “We are exceptionally proud of the journey that we and our more than one hundred employees have taken above the final two yrs. GeoPost’s acquisition will permit Stuart to maximise its prospective and develop into the top player in final mile shipping and delivery in Europe.”

In the meantime, GeoPost suggests the acquisition of Stuart will “cement” its posture as a top supplier of convey city shipping and delivery in the course of Europe. “Stuart provides the ultimate piece in the shipping and delivery benefit chain fashioned by GeoPost subsidiaries Chronopost, DPD, SEUR and Pickup,” the French business notes.

I’m also told that Stuart will remain an impartial manufacturer and GeoPost subsidiary, and that Damien Bon, COO at Stuart, is getting promoted as CEO of Stuart.

In addition, Diego Magdelénat and Paul-Ambroise, the founders of Pickup, a startup specialising in choice shipping and delivery which GeoPost acquired in 2009, will co-chair Stuart.

“Stuart’s co-founders will make sure a easy transition above the following number of months,” suggests GeoPost, which, I also suspect is a coded way of saying they aren’t sticking about for much too extended article-acquisition.