Contxto – Moova, the self-proclaimed Airbnb of urban logistics startup from Argentina, duplicated its annual turnover expectation thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
While the lock down forced many businesses to drastically change their ways in order to survive, some others like Moova benefitted from the conditions introduced by this global crisis.
The company’s CEO, Antonio Migliore, came up with the idea for Moova during a trip to New York where he noticed how many e-commerce products were delivered to his hotel’s reception. Argentina, he thought, was lacking this service.
So he decided to bring the urban logistic services back home.
The platform works as follows: a given logistics company uses the platform’s “Moovers” or dispatchers to perform its last-mile deliveries using an algorithm that makes the delivery as efficient as possible.
Having next to zero competition, Moova is the go-to service of its kind.
Back in March, when the company was starting, an annual turnover of AR$100 million (~US$ 1 million) was projected.
Then the pandemic hit. Now, Moova has reached its turnover projection and is expected to double it to AR$200 million by the end of the year.
Moova does digital first
Moova managed to avoid a crisis caused by the pandemic for one simple reason: It digitized its businesses from the start.
That’s right. A strong technical infrastructure and paperless digital processes help safeguard a business’s productivity during times of crisis.
The Covid-19 pandemic has manifested a reality in which physical contact is practically impossible and almost every interaction must be made virtually.
This is why businesses like Moova that operate digitally from the start are having an advantage over other companies that were still reluctant to digitize their services.
Other similar cases in Latin America
There are other examples of logistics startups in Latin America that have benefitted from the coronavirus pandemic.
Colombian startup Pibox, for example, offers logistics companies the technology to coordinate their delivery fleets. The company has reported a monthly 57 percent growth throughout the Covid-19 contingency.
Likewise, the Brazilian last-mile delivery startup Traz Favela reports that orders have increased by nearly 300 percent during the pandemic.
Moova currently operates in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, and is working on growing towards Peru and Colombia.
-BIC
