While everyone else is claiming it to be a funding slowdown, Indian Angel Network, world’s largest group of angel investors show no such signs. IAN announced an undisclosed investment in Bengaluru based movers and packers startup, Pikkol. Angel Investor, CEO & Managing Trustee B.PAC, Revathy Ashok and Raj Rathi led the round of investment on behalf of IAN with Raj Rathi joining the company board to further guide the team in becoming a leader in the moving and relocation industry in India.
Conceived as the brainchild of a group of enterprising young men, Pikkol is a technology centric relocation service provider where customers can generate tailor-made solutions for their relocation needs. They make use of strong analytics based technological back-end and logistics network for servicing the orders adding reliability and accountability through operational interventions.
In spite of a crowded relocation services market, there are hardly any players who offer standardized and quality relocation services. Pikkol was born out of extensive research done in the logistics and home services segment that helped the team identify the problems that consumers face while relocating. Since the market is flooded with vendors with minimum expertise, it’s a challenge for consumers to find a trusted mover. With the aim to address this pain point, Pikkol was conceptualized in April 2015 by Deepu Chandran, Suraj Valimbe, Siby Mathew and Jayaram Kasivisweswaran
Deepu Chandran, CEO of Pikkol said
Currently, this unorganized industry is a constant source of dissatisfaction for customers. We felt that many of those problems related to accountability, reliability and transparency could be solved with technology and operational excellence. Customer experience is the key area that we majorly concentrate on. Really delighted that team IAN for backing us up.
The company plans to utilize the raised funds in product development and expansion. They will also be concentrating on enhancing capabilities of moving teams and continual behavioral and transactional training as part of their product enhancement.
The USD 2-3 Billion packers and movers market is highly unorganized and fragmented. With increased mobility of workforce and higher urbanization, relocation market is expected to grow at 10% per annum and reach USD 5 Billion by 2020. In developed markets relocation market is close to 0.2%-0.3% of the total GDP.
Raj Rathi, the IAN lead investor who is joining the board commented on the investment said
Relocating to a new place is already a difficult task. On top of that, when you have to deal with vendors who refuse to understand your situation adds more to the woes. This is where Pikkol will break the cluttered market. While the traditional players redirect their customers to other vendors without providing any post move assistance, Pikkol aims at providing standardized logistic services with both pre move and post move assistance.
They are using technology to create better experience for the customers. What makes them stand out from other vendors in the market is their customer centric approach which is rarely found in this segment. I am pretty excited to mentor them in their journey of being the market leaders.
While most of the online portals and traditional players in the industry claim to provide reliable packers and movers to customers but do nothing more than just passing customer details to vendors, Pikkol choose to be different and intends to usher a new wave of change in the relocation industry in India by being tremendously customer centric. Having serviced more than 10,000 moves to more than 40 destinations in India in the past one year, it incorporates innovative use of technology to identify and solve pain-points of this utility service by setting up benchmarks in service quality and transparency through data driven methodologies.
About Pikkol
Pikkol is a technology centric relocation service provider that offers standardized service experience and tailor-made relocation packages for customers. Its adaptive algorithm captures the inventory and computes the right truck size, packing requirements, and price to ensure that the process is completely hassle free for its customers. Pikkol seamlessly integrates with home service providers to ensure that pre-move and post-move services can be availed by the customer. The pre-move services currently include electrical, plumbing, carpentry, appliance un-installation and installation.
The booking system in Pikool , let the customer enter all details and make a booking in less than 5 minutes while a traditional move involves survey from vendor and multiple rounds of negotiation. The state-of-the-art adaptive algorithm which runs the backend of Pikkol system analyze the details and compute the right truck size, packing requirements, distance and special requirements to automatically quote the charge of the move. The system generated quotes ensures complete transparent pricing and the customer need not shell out any extra charges during the course of move. Assigning a personal move coordinator with every move and tracking the move at every stage ensures that all customer requirements are met and the service quality and standards are maintained. For more information, please visit Pikool
About Indian Angel Network
The Indian Angel Network is the world’s largest business angel group. With close to 400 investors from 10 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and UK. IAN has invested in startups from diverse industries/sectors. The investor group comprises successful and established entrepreneurs as well as dynamic CEOs. They not only invest in innovative startups but also provide valuable inputs on strategy, in addition to providing access to their vast global networks. IAN’s portfolio, with over 100-odd companies, spans 17 sectors across 7 countries. IAN portfolio companies have given 70x returns in 6 years, 21x in 30 months, 22x in 60 months, and 6x in 15 months; with ventures such as Druva, Stayzilla, and Webengage well on their way to become unicorns. For more information, please visit IAN