Paris-based Boks, a startup making it easy to receive parcels at home 24/7, has announced snapping up €1.2 million from renowned business angels, real estate professionals, industry players and BPI. With these new funds, Boks aspires to become the leading player in the parcel receipt industry, through its connected ‘Boks’, or small secure storage boxes, that are accessed via a single-use code.
Today, more than one million parcels a week are not delivered to people’s homes properly, and are either resolved with a failed delivery note and attempted re-delivery, or are sent to a nearby pickup point. This has serious consequences for both the carriers, who lose time and money with each failed delivery, and for online shops, whose brand image suffers with each failed package dropoff. What’s more, carrying out re-deliveries raises the carbon footprint of all involved, much to the detriment of the environment.
Founded in 2017, Boks is a real revolution in the parcel delivery market. Each Boks ‘vault’ is fixed to the ground or wall, in common areas either inside or outside the housing, and is fully secure, only opening with a single-use code for the delivery driver and a Bluetooth key for the customer. The Boks doesn’t need to be connected to electricity, wifi, or 4G, and has low running costs – starting at €1.9 per dwelling per month in collective housing (each Boks covers about 10 to 30 dwellings simultaneously).
This design, which is being deployed throughout France, has attracted many real estate groups who wish to offer secure parcel reception service to their occupants. After a year of growth, the startup plans to double its workforce by the end of 2020, regarding its sales department and technical team in particular. The priority will be to improve the service and the product offered to users.
The fresh funds raised will certainly help them with this mission. The round was supported by business angels like Jonathan Benhamou and Clément Buyse (co-founders of PeopleDoc), Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux (via venture capital firm Notus Technologies), and Clément Alteresco (founder of Morning Coworking, ex-BAP), as well as real estate leaders, industry players and BPI.
“Boks is a fast-growing startup with a bright future. These two young entrepreneurs inspire us with confidence in their vision and ambition. It is with real pleasure that we accompany them in the expansion of their reach and their activity in France”, comments Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux.
