Relay Raises $10 Million to Expand Delivery Service Across UK

Relay raised $10 million in seed funding to expand its delivery service for retailers across the United Kingdom.

“We began Relay with a vision to overhaul the traditional delivery network, creating a full-stack delivery service to meet the dynamic needs of modern eCommerce retailers and their customers,” the company said in a Wednesday (Nov. 22) post on LinkedIn. “Today, we’re proud to see this vision come to life in London with industry leaders like THG and JD Sports Fashion and burgeoning digital-native consumer brands.”

Relay will expand its service across the U.K. in 2024, according to the post.

The company’s seed funding is backed by Project A and Prologis, the post said.

Relay’s tech-enabled delivery network provides a parcel delivery service that encompasses the first, middle and last miles, moving goods from eCommerce retailers’ warehouses to consumers’ doorsteps, Project A said in a Wednesday press release.

The service is built on a network of asset-free partners, eliminating the traditional logistics overhead costs of suburban area depots and sorting centers, and making deliveries quicker, more efficient and more sustainable, the release said.

While incumbents rely on full-time van drivers, Relay taps into a local network of on-demand courier partners using smaller vehicles, Project A said in a Wednesday post on LinkedIn.

In addition, its routing technology matches couriers to routes in real time, enabling them to combine deliveries and returns in one route, per the post.

“Relay’s lean operational model, coupled with the team’s exceptional industry knowledge and technology-centric approach, promises to radically disrupt the status quo in parcel delivery,” Project A Partner Philipp Werner said in the release.

PYMNTS Intelligence found that British eCommerce shoppers prefer at-home delivery over other options like curbside or in-store pickup.

Eighty-six percent of British consumers opted to have their most recent online purchases delivered to their homes — the highest percentage across six countries surveyed — compared to 14% who opted to pick them up, according to “The 2022 Global Digital Shopping Playbook: United Kingdom Edition,” a PYMNTS and Cybersource collaboration.

The report added that retailers have partnered with delivery aggregators to give consumers access to convenient, on-demand delivery.

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