How does the story of Instabee begin?
Instabee is made up of primarily two strong consumer brands born in Sweden: Instabox and Budbee, who both entered the market with the ambition to offer consumer centric and sustainable e-commerce solutions. Both companies were founded around the same time some six years ago, and approached the same problem from different angles.
Instabox’s deliveries to smart automated parcel lockers quickly became a preferred option for many Swedes and the company later added home deliveries in 2021.
Today, the Instabox brand is available in four countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany). Budbee was founded with an initial focus on making home deliveries smarter, faster, and more convenient for consumers. Budbee added boxes in 2020 and that brand is now available in five countries (Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium).
Together, we serve strong brands such as H&M, Zalando, Lyko and Boozt and figured it makes perfect sense to join forces instead of competing. In the new company Budbee’s founder, Fredrik Hamilton, is CEO and I am Executive Chairman of the Board.
What is your edge towards competitors in the delivery business?
Instabee has the power to further invest in, and push the boundaries of, consumer-centric and sustainable last-mile delivery services for the e-commerce sector. Both Instabox and Budbee have successfully challenged traditional players in the market and pioneered the industry regarding customer-centricity and sustainability.
The business logic behind this combination relies heavily on pooling and building on the two companies’ combined expertise and know-how. Instabee can now challenge traditional state-owned players and well-funded on-demand delivery companies entering the e-commerce sector. Furthermore, leveraging potential synergies in operations and sharing technology solutions will lead to substantial savings in terms of carbon footprint.
How do you use tech to solve the complexity in last mile delivery?
Everything we do is tech!
For Home deliveries, we use AI to automatically create the most efficient routes and every night, the algorithm is further improved by comparing its calculations with the actual outcome.
For Locker deliveries, we use predictive technology to anticipate how big your parcel is going to be before it has been packed and when you are going to pick it up. In this way, we can give very precise estimates of delivery times already in the check-out.
Where do you see Instabee in 10 years?
In ten years, I believe we have further pushed the boundaries of the consumer experience in online shopping and created even more flexible and appreciated services. We will have a presence across Europe and be a preferred choice when it comes to sustainable solutions for last mile deliveries.
