Andalucia-based startup Mission Box finalizes an investment agreement that grants communications company Grupo Zeta 1% of shares in the company.
Having gone through the El Cubo crowdworking accelerator, Mission Box is an online marketplace that helps people who don’t have the time to do errands and need someone to do it for them. Users can buy, pickup, or send products within the same city, and its fleet of mainly bikers delivers in 60 minutes or less.
Through a “media for equity” agreement, Grupo Zeta will promote Mission Box through its media outlets such as Diario de Córdoba, La Crónica de Badajoz, El Periódico Extremadura, and El Periódico Mediterráneo. In return Grupo Zeta becomes a shareholder in the startup with 1% of the shares.
The idea is to help improve the knowledge of the service by potential customers of Mission Box and open new opportunities within the expansion of its operations.
Gregorio Lopez, CEO at Mission Box
“This agreement with Grupo Zeta is a great springboard for Mission Box to achieve a much more solid and faster expansion. It will help us reach more potential customers, and we can add value to them as a logistics partner,” said Mission Box CEO Gregorio Lopez.
Apart from the investment agreement with Grupo Zeta, Lopez tells Novobrief that Mission Box is currently running a completely separate and independent crowdfunding campaign.
The campaign has raised 126,126 € as of this writing, with the goal of raising 230,000 € by January 26.
Priding itself with a focus on people first, Mission Box’s motorcycle couriers are employed by the startup with all the benefits, including contracts and guaranteed adequate working conditions along with insurance, as the human element is “key in guaranteeing client satisfaction in a delivery service.”
The startup considers itself a “company of maps,” and has also partnered with leading online, home food ordering service Just Eat, so that any restaurant associated with Just Eat that are also in areas where Mission Box operates may have a delivery service without having to develop it from scratch and having to invest in its own fleet of delivery vehicles.
Mission Box currently operates in Andalucia (Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Huelva and Jaen) and in Extremadura (Caceres, Badajoz and Merida) as well as Alicante and Castellon, and is carrying out an expansion that will soon offer service in 15 new cities in Spain in addition to starting operations in Mexico City.
The El Cubo accelerator is part of Open Future, which is an initiative of Telefonica, the same company that runs the Wayra accelerator that has operations in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Spain, Germany, and the UK.