Cargobike Delivery Service Zedify Raises £300,000 From Green Angel Syndicate

Cambridge-based cargobike delivery service Zedify has raised over £300,000 from a group of private investors led by Green Angel Syndicate, a specialist in funding businesses fighting climate change.

“Zedify is tackling a very serious problem, air pollution and carbon emissions in cities, in a huge, fast-growing market,” said Green Angel Syndicate director Antoine Pradayrol who joins the Zedify board.

Zedify offers zero-emission deliveries via distinctive electric cargobikes. It was founded in 2018 and has depots in Brighton, Edinburgh, London, Southhampton, Norwich, and Winchester.

“E-cargobikes are a great alternative for some 20 percent of all delivery vans currently operating in large cities,” concluded a Dutch study.

Academics from Amsterdam and Rotterdam Universities spent two years working with freight companies, municipalities and other experts to compile the 121-page City Logistic: Light and Electric report. This argues that cities are being strangled by trucks and vans: a great deal of freight traffic in urban areas is now comprised of delivery vans (in the UK, van traffic has grown by 71% over the last 20 years, compared to growth of 13% for cars.)

Even if all such vehicles became electric overnight there still wouldn’t be enough space for them all to scuttle around, park, unload and then travel to the next drop. Cities would be better served by lighter, smaller vehicles, showed the report.

Lead author Walther Ploos van Amstel, professor of city logistics at Amsterdam University, argued that “truck technology needs to become smarter, cleaner, quieter, smaller and safer.”

E-cargobikes, and e-cargotrikes, fit the bill. Their 350kg capacity is not weedy—in the Netherlands, the average van carries as little as 130kg per trip. And e-cargobikes are nimble, which will become increasingly important as more and more of us opt to live cheek by jowl in cities, where road space will always be in short supply.

Known in the logistics industry as LEFVs—or light electric freight vehicles—e-cargobikes have electric pedal assistance and can be ridden on roads and on cycleways. In many cities an e-cargobike is far faster than a van.

E-cargobikes can weave through gridlocked motor traffic, and can often be wheeled into drop-off destinations rather than parking illegally, a problem endemic to van deliveries. According to research by the municipality of Amsterdam, the average loading and unloading time for delivery vans and lorries is 12 minutes—the same amount of freight can be unloaded from an e-cargobike in as little as three minutes.

Zedify’s new funding will be used to boost staff numbers and enable the firm to improve its in-house last-mile delivery logistics platform. There are plans to have 20 depots open within two years.

The firm has partnered with Clickitlocal to connect consumers in select cities with multiple local shops.

“Our role is to consolidate all the deliveries so that you can buy all your favorite local produce and get this delivered in one,” says a statement from Zedify, which has been operating during the pandemic lockdown. ​

Green Angel Syndicate supports early-stage technology companies “developing products and solutions for a more efficient and sustainable use of global resources.”