What is the Opportunity/problem?
In recent years, digitization has led to massive growth in Indian e-Commerce, with a 10-year CAGR up to 33 percent and growing. Amidst this era of demand-led e-Commerce, over 45 percent of businesses are being set up as D2C brands. An efficient delivery system has become crucial , as it remains the only touch point. The current logistics landscape is polarized- businesses must choose between Speed vs. Reach, Reliability vs. Efficiency, Convenience vs. Customer Experience, and latency remains an unresolved element in both 3PL and 1PL. Inefficient use of supply compounded with rapid growth in demand pressures supply costs, resulting in broken unit economics.

Version 1.0 of e-Commerce saw brick-and-mortar businesses going online as an add-on to their offline business. The evolution to e-Commerce version 2.0 however, has seen many new ventures ranging from cloud kitchens to D2C brands. For D2C, all other elements such as sales, communication, etc. are digitized, delivery becoming the only physical interaction point left between them and their customer. Here the customer associates the delivery process with the brand instead of the logistics partner, which has led to brands becoming increasingly conscious about choosing their delivery partner.

Give us a brief overview of Pidge?
Pidge believes that a delivery should never be a compromise between speed and reach. Pidge offers India's first Logistics as a Managed Service (LaMS)through which we have built a solution for city logistics that includes modular SaaS products and comprises end-to-end solutions relevant to both 1PL and 3PL.

Our proprietary technology uses AI and custom algorithms to bring speed and a unique user interface, but LaMS extends these benefits to businesses doing their own logistics too. Pidge has created micro-fulfillment centers called 'Pidge Houses'a hybrid between warehouses and dark stores. Between our hybrid fleet, Omni-category fulfillment and SaaS, Pidge has built a 360 city logistics solution.

Tell us about the impact of technology on Logistics and how Pidge has used technology to improve customer satisfaction.
Pidge has solved some of the most predominant issues faced in the city logistics space, one being same-day radius-free fulfillment. We can pick up packages from warehouses located on the outskirts of the city and distribute them anywhere across Delhi NCR, as far as 120 km away on the same day.

This is largely powered by Pidge's proprietary algorithms. Our mobile hub and spoke option, and super loop distribution system with dynamic batching helps real time order clubbing while maintaining a complete asset light model.

Pidge gives brands, as well as their customers, complete visibility into their

deliveries, enabling them to track their orders live.. This has allowed Pidge to be able to optimize for latency, which has consistently been the biggest problem that plagues the delivery ecosystem.

What are the logistics solutions offered by Pidge and how are they different from its competitors?
Pidge provides unrestricted 360 City Logistics. Pidge is the only Omni-category fulfillment service allowing for yield optimization, and can offer on-demand cold chain logistics, helping not just temperature control food segments but also medical diagnostics segments.

Pidge SaaS suite offers eight modular products, becoming the first company to combine its SaaS offering with the guarantee of fulfillment/ service.

Pidge is building the world's first three sided interoperable network in the logistics space, creating micro ecosystems allowing SaaS users to interact, utilize and lend latent supply.

Everything we have built is best-in-class and has been built with the intent to scale and grow

Tell us about your clientele and the industry verticals Pidge caters to.
Pidge delivers for highvalue small businesses, white labeled dining, and e-Commerce, and has largely focused on the long tail and the D2C segments. At one end of the spectrum are micro businesses, home entrepreneurs that Pidge serves through Pidge Pass and the Pidge app. On the other end, Pidge works with the high GMV O2O segment, largely in the food and special handling businesses Pidge's biggest clientele is the e-Commerce segment, which varies across categories.We have seen the fastest growth in the health and beauty segment, the apparel segment, and the consumer wearable and accessories segment.

Tell us about the core leadership of the company and the recognition it has received.
Pidge was founded by Ratnesh Verma and Rushil Mohan. Ratnesh is a global business leader, and a graduate of Stanford Business School. He is recognized for building brands and businesses from scratch on a global scale. Ratnesh is defined by his diversity of professional and cultural experiences, and excels in creating exceptional stakeholder value.

Rushil under went his undergraduate and masters from Northwestern University and has extensive experience working with D2C brands. Rushil, through his business first approach, is responsible for developing customer-centric products and is committed to building brand-led and data-driven business solutions.

Pidge's core team also consists of Sachin Daga, who is Head of Finance with an exceptionally vast experience in startups, including OYO and Zomato where he held senior management positions.

Finally, Vishal Singh, an MBA in marketing and a graduate from IHM Pusa is the Head of Business and has had a journey of over 20 years in the hospitality industry. He has held multiple leadership roles in customer experience-focused businesses.

What is the roadmap ahead for the company's new growth phase?
Pidge looks at growth in three segments the first being geographic growth. Pidge is gearing up to launch its services in Bangalore and Mumbai in the next quarter, after which we will be able to service over 54percent of the entire e-Commerce business in India.

The second avenue is launching new services and products. We are excited at the imminent launch of LaMS, an end-to-end solution relevant for both 1PL and 3PL.

Finally, Pidge also believes in offering more services to its existing customers like offering SaaS solutions to smaller businesses, encouraging them to be on Pidge's ecosystem.