Delivery startup VtoV raises $7.2 million from Series A round 

South Korean logistics startup VtoV, the operator of optimized delivery service To-Day, raised 9.5 billion won ($7.2 million) from a Series A round. 

Previous investors TBT Partners and Humax made additional investments while a number of new investors such as Smilegate Investment Inc., Woomi Global, and Korea Credit Guarantee Fund plugged in capital into VtoV in this round. 

VtoV will use the fresh injection of funds for kicking off the domestic business expansion in full swing.

The startup claims its To-Day service is an unprecedented solution that overcomes the ineffectiveness of the existing Hub & Spoke solution. 

The Hub & Spoke solution is a form of transport topology optimization where traffic planners organize routes as a series of "spokes" that connect outlying points to a central "hub."

In sharp contrast, the new service is based on a public distribution network. In other words, it adopts the public bus routes in the Seoul metropolitan area to the distribution system. 

The To-Day service bypasses the Mega Hub used in Hub & Spoke system, thereby shortening the route. 

Just like people can use the public bus route in the metropolitan area to reach anywhere in the bigger Seoul within hours, the packages that go through the public distribution network will also be delivered within a day of shipment. 

“There is no need for a shipment to take another day to be delivered just to go through a Mega Hub,” a VtoV executive said. “We will rapidly expand the To-Day service so that as many people and corporate clients can reap the benefits.” 

Founded in April 2021,VtoV, which stands for vehicle-to-vehicle, has succeeded in attracting conglomerates and major distributors are its clients, including Amorepacific Corp. and Lotte Global Logistics. 

It is also in talks with Naver Corp.’s Smart Store division.

Write to Jong-Woo Kim at jongwoo@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.