Ride Share Delivery Service Roadie Launches With $10 Million In Funding

Ride sharing delivery startup Roadie has launched itself with a series A funding round totaling $10 million. The investors in the round include UPS, Warren Stephens of Stephens Inc., TomorrowVentures and others.

The company was founded by Marc Gorlin, whos the CEO. Gorlin is also a cofounder of Kabbage, which provides working capital to small businesses. Gorlin will remain involved with the company as Chairman of the Board.

The concept for the app, which launches today in iOS and Google Play stores, is pretty simple. If you need something delivered from one city to another, you go to the app to see if there are any drivers making the trip during your time frame. A fee is agreed to and the driver delivers the package.

In addition to the fee, drivers who use Roadie are also entitled to roadside assistance and other benefits, and users are able to track their package along the entire trip.

Theres someone leaving somewhere going somewhere all the time, Gorlin told me. Thus you have Roadie.

The idea, Gorlin continued, is that there are people all over the place making regular commutes or trips on the road. Thats a lot of unused transportation capacity, so why not take advantage of it?

Test screenshot of Roadie gigs. (Credit: Roadie)

These are people who are just taking stuff where they were already going to go, Gorlin said. The first gig was a guy who brought a package of t-shirts to Tampa. He made 64 bucks for the same trip he was going to drive without us.

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Ride Share Delivery Service Roadie Launches With $10 Million In Funding