While the last-mile delivery market may reach over $123 billion in the next few years, entrepreneur Al-Ameen Kabba thinks it is time for the logistics industry to think a little bit smaller.
The 100-foot delivery market is what he is going after now with Payvmnt.
The idea for the startup came from Kabba’s time at Amazon, where he was part of launching the Amzon Prime Now/Whole Foods operations. While rising in the ranks at the ecommerce giant, Kabba started digging into why some delivery people were more efficient than others during their daily delivery routes around New York City.
What he found out was that it wasn’t about Apple Maps versus Google Maps providing the most efficient route. Rather, it came down to each individual’s knowledge of side streets and apartment entryways.
“GPS doesn’t have implicit knowledge of buildings. Drivers had more optimization and efficiency in their minds than the technology did,” Kabba told Hypepotamus.
Upon arrival at a package receiver’s address, delivery drivers need to know important info about gate codes, locations of call boxes, and whether or not a condo building has a designated package locker. That can only come from visiting the same location more than once.
Payvmt looks to crowdsource that information for the benefit of all delivery drivers. The platform brings together individual data points from drivers to help improve the entire delivery process for other drivers heading to the same address later on.
Kabba describes it as a Waze platform designed explicitly for the last 100-feet of the delivery process.
On The Move In Atlanta
Kabba, had been coming to Atlanta over the last two years to help get Payvmnt off the ground after it was launched in New York and Nashville. He credits Goodie Nation, an organization supporting diverse tech founders, for getting him plugged into the local tech scene.
His official move to Atlanta six months ago was made easier when the startup was selected for Techstars Atlanta’s 2022 cohort.
“Moving the company to Atlanta was really good for us. It just allowed us to get access to more resources,” he told Hypepotamus. “When it comes to last mile delivery, logistics and supply chain, Atlanta is a good market to be in.”
While Kabba has only been in Atlanta for six months, he’s wasted no time diving into the local startup scene. He’ll be launching the app version of the app this October.
Those interested in understanding how big the 100-foot logistics journey is can hear Kabba pitch on the Techstars Atlanta’s Demo Day stage on October 17.
