Pickup Raises $15M Series B For Big And Bulky Deliveries

Pickup, a Dallas-based startup that provides delivery services for large items, has raised a $15 million Series B, the company announced Tuesday.

Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

Pickup coordinates the pickup and delivery of big and bulky items from retailers to customers. The company, which operates in 75 cities across the United States, last raised $3.5 million in April 2020, according to Crunchbase.

“Delivery is the last touch for the customer experience,” founder Brenda Stoner said in an interview with Crunchbase News. “If it goes poorly, it impacts what happens at the consumer brand. So we take that very seriously.” 

The company works with brands including Williams Sonoma, Big Lots, and At Home to deliver large items like mattresses and furniture. Pickup looks to employ people customers would trust, such as military veterans, first responders and teachers, to be among its crew of “Good Guys” to deliver and assemble large items.

NewRoad Capital Partners led the Series B round, with participation from TDF Ventures, Noro-Moseley Partners, Florida Funders, Autotech Ventures and New York Angels.

Pickup will use the new funding to hire more employees on the tech and operations side, acquire more customers, and expand into more markets. The company has just under 100 employees now and plans to add 100 more in the next 18 to 24 months, Stoner said, and will expand into 15 more markets in that same time frame. Pickup has a 3x growth plan for 2021, according to Stoner.

Special delivery type

Delivery services have been refined for parcels and small packages, but it hasn’t happened so far for big and bulky deliveries because coordinating the delivery of large items is more difficult, Stoner said. 

Big and bulky deliveries often need two or more people to deliver them. Deliverers often need to go to a warehouse or other far location to pick up the item before transporting it safely to the customer. The delivered item also often needs to be assembled. 

This process is difficult and “there were easier fish to fry” in terms of building technology for deliveries, Stoner said, which is why most delivery tech is aimed at parcels and small packages.

Inventory used to be farther away as well, Stoner said, so two-hour deliveries weren’t possible. But with inventory moving closer to where many people live, there’s likely going to be more of a desire for fast deliveries of large items.

“When Brenda [Stoner] highlights the customer experience, they want same-day deliveries, they want shorter two-hour committed windows, they want execution and that commitment of knowing they’re going to get that delivery when they expect it,” NewRoad Capital Partners operating partner Tracy Black said in an interview. “I think that’s happened in the parcel space, I think with Pickup they’re bringing that to the big and bulky space.”

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias