Spanish online marketplace and courier platform for SMEs and large enterprises Mission Box closes an investment round of €750,000.
After finalizing an investment agreement that granted communications company Grupo Zeta 1% of shares in the company last year, Andalucia’s Mission Box recently closed an investment round of €750,000.
This latest round of financing comes from a participative loan from the SOPREA Fund for Technological Entrepreneurs, along with a private co-investment through the Dogma Investment Fund and crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.
Gregorio Lopez
Misson Box Founder and CEO Gregorio Lopez told Spanish newspaper El Referente that the money from the round “will be destined to the growth and expansion of the company, as well as to improve our software development.”
“By 2018 we must have a presence throughout the Spanish territory, in addition to being able to communicate and strengthen some other pilot agreements we have with major partners on the Spanish scene, both in food delivery and in traditional messaging,” Lopez added.
The Andalusian startup is an expert in last mile logistics and facilitates both management software and route optimization as well as the human team for logistics. In short, it ships within 60 minutes within the same city.
Currently, Mission Box operates nationally and internationally, with a presence in 25 Spanish cities and one international in Mexico City.
“If we have something that really defines us at Mission Box, it is people are believed in. We currently operate with a human team of almost 200 bikers, each and every one of them given social security as workers of the company. They also have a company vehicle for their daily functions — electric vehicles that help maintain a cleaner and more sustainable world,” said the CEO.
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.”
Read More: Andalucia startup Mission Box closes investment with Grupo Zeta for 1% of company
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.
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.
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.
Through a “media for equity” agreement last year, Grupo Zeta is promoting 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 became a shareholder in the startup with 1% of the shares.
The idea was to help improve the knowledge of the service by potential customers of Mission Box and open new opportunities within the expansion of its operations.
