Swotzy, an innovative logistics startup, excitedly reveals a €500,000 pre-seed funding round, hot on the heels of its initial investment of €90,000 just four months prior.
Swotzy, a SaaS shipping software, empowers eCommerce businesses to optimise their shipping strategies, choosing the best-fit carriers for deliveries without having to navigate complex contracts, integrations, and relationships. The software allows businesses to save on shipping costs and benefit from valuable insights about delivery performance, and the best carrier setups.
Swotzy began in Latvia when Lauris, Swotzy’s co-founder and CEO, started to spot inefficiencies in the last-mile delivery market while working at Printful (still the only Latvian Unicorn). By researching the industry more, he realised that last-mile delivery challenges equally affected both large corporations and small businesses. Lauris spotted a gap, and envisioned a solution that could assist businesses globally. Believing firmly that companies should compete on product and not shipping, the idea for Swotzy was born.
"Swotzy's story in the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) Liepaja Business Incubator started at the beginning of July; during discussions with Swotzy representatives about internal processes and the strategic vision of the company, we saw a lot of potential. Swotzy's activities can be described as "just in time". The company has succeeded in offering a solution to the problem of sustainability in logistics. Swotzy's solution is easily scalable across different markets and has the potential to bring new added value to the logistics industry," says Vita Liepiņa, Head of the LIAA Liepāja Business Incubator.
The rapid growth of the global last-mile delivery market is making it more difficult for businesses to navigate it. According to Insight Ace Analytics report, last-mile market size was valued at $151.87B in 2022. And with projections indicating a surge to $357.45B by 2031, there’s a pressing demand for innovative solutions. Equipped with cutting-edge tools and insights, Swotzy aims to guide businesses through the dynamic growth of the last-mile delivery market and serve the evolving needs of their customers better.
The pre-seed round funding was led by Black Pearls VC and joined by previous investor, the Lithuanian-based FIRSTPICK. The funds will be used to accelerate Swotzy’s product development, strengthen the company’s foothold in the Baltic market, and initiate work on data analysis tools. Swotzy aims to improve its product offering, enabling its customers to optimise shipping strategies and improve last-mile delivery services.
"This pre-seed investment really confirms that it’s not just us seeing the big problem we’re trying to solve—VCs see it too. They understand that by staying focused on providing valuable solutions to our customers, we can ramp up our operations. Moreover, they see how these additional resources can fuel this progression even faster," says Lauris Rutkis, co-founder and CEO of Swotzy. "Getting another cash injection so soon really bolsters our confidence to keep going full steam ahead, but now with some extra firepower."
Speaking on the extraordinary fundraising feat at such an early stage Rutkis continues, "When you look at the current lay of the land in the investment world, to attract such investment before we’ve even really started making serious revenue is a great achievement and responsibility at the same time. It just goes to show how much belief there is in what we’re set out to build."
Swotzy is delighted to announce that this round of investment also means that Jarosław Pilarczyk from Black Pearls VC and Andra Bagdonaitė from FIRSTPICK will join the company’s Supervisory Board, infusing new insights and experience into Swotzy’s leadership team.
The Partner of Black Pearls VC, Aleksander Dobrzyniecki, comments, ”We are excited to expand our Latvian based portfolio with the addition of Swotzy. This superb team originating from a local unicorn, Printful, and Nordigen, our ex-portfolio company acquired by GoCardless, is a testament to the growing maturity of the ecosystem. As alumni of these well-known companies, Lauris, Kristians & Jekabs, along with the team, are embarking on a new ambitious project that is heavily rooted in the pains of shipping & last-mile delivery they experienced first-hand in their respective careers. We are proud to lead this round and support them to build another category-defining company from the Baltics."
FIRSTPICK’s Andra also weighs in, “We made our initial investment in Swotzy in March, and since then we have been impressed with the team’s speed of execution and commitment to building a global company. Having started Swotzy as a hobby project in early 2023, the management team has left their full-time jobs, built the initial version of the product, onboarded the first 30 paying clients, and are about to onboard all major couriers in the 3 Baltic states. The additional funding will accelerate this growth even further, and we are glad to join the round alongside Black Pearls.”
About Swotzy
Founded in August 2022 by Lauris Rutkis, Kristians Jenciuss, and Jekabs Hincenbergs, Swotzy is a logistics startup on a mission to simplify and make last-mile delivery accessible to all businesses. By harnessing smart tech with industry insight, Swotzy is set to change last-mile delivery industry standards.
About Black Pearls VC
Black Pearls VC is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on supporting the leading tech companies from the Baltic Sea Region. It invests in early stages with a typical ticket of anywhere between €100k - €1m. Black Pearls VC is a part of the Kauffman Fellows, a global network of 700+ leading VCs.
About FIRSTPICK VC
FIRSTPICK is a venture capital fund founded in 2022, backing the best tech startup founders in the Baltic States. FIRSTPICK organises acceleration programmes for early-stage startups to help them achieve rapid growth and validate their ideas. FIRSTPICK’s capital consists of funds from private teams and investors, and an investment from the INVEGA Fund, which is part of the Accelerator 2 programme, funded by the Innovation Promotion Fund.