Underground logistics startup Pipedream bags $13 million in seed funding round led by Starship Ventures

Pipedream has announced a $13 million seed raise led by Starship Ventures as it continues to scale underground logistics for its customers.

There was also participation from Cortado Ventures, Myelin Ventures and other angels and firms.

The capital will be used to speed up delivery of Instant Pickup to its customers and to begin construction on the first large scale middle mile network in a city.

In an online post, Garrett McCurrach, CEO at Pipedream, said: “Our long-term goal is to make hyperlogistics a reality by the end of this decade. Hyperlogistics is achieved when people in a city can receive things in under ten minutes for less than a dollar and send back that item just as easily as it was received.”

“To do this, we need to make moving goods around a city and through buildings, as easy and painless as it is to move water.”

He added: “Over this past year, Pipedream has stealthy and quickly executed goal of creating the fast, low-cost, and efficient system needed to accomplish this mission.”

“We successfully built an almost mile long in city test network and that delivers goods from inside a retail store, to inside an office building almost a mile away through an underground pipe. This proves that we can build this infrastructure easily in cities and connect it into buildings, offices, apartments and homes.”

Instant Pickup takes all the modules designed for the in city network, and helps businesses automate curbside with a system that is labelled “low cost and easy to retrofit into existing buildings”.

It allows employees at a grocery store, restaurant, or retail store to load orders into a back of house storage system so that when a customer pulls up to one of its kiosks in the parking lot, their order can be handed to them in less than 15 seconds.

McCurrach said: “We currently have over 100 preorders for Instant Pickup systems and will use this capital to scale deliveries to our partners as quickly as possible.”

“We are excited to work with our quick-service restaurant (QSR), retail, and grocery partners to help them make getting their products to customers faster and easier.”

This year, Pipedream will be selecting a city to build its first middle mile network (a large scale underground delivery network that makes current deliveries faster and cheaper in a city) and collaborating with local government and city officials to maximise the benefits of its delivery system for all their citizens.

Construction is set to begin this year, with plans to start utilising the network by next spring.

McCurrach concluded: “We have a long way to go, but wouldn’t have gotten to this point without the hard work of our incredible team and partners. Their dedication and expertise have been instrumental in bringing our vision to life as fast as possible.”