Article - EP4

HIVED is reinventing the parcel delivery industry by building a mass-market, zero-emission network. When Genia Mineeva founded BEEN London—a sustainable design brand that leverages materials that would’ve otherwise wound up in landfills by recycling them into handbags, laptop cases, and other stylish, yet practical, products—she was posed with a problem: Shipping was a nightmare. “Originally, it was just me shipping everything from my living room and going to the post office. It was parcels, parcels, and parcels everywhere. My husband almost divorced me,” Mineeva says, laughing. “At a certain point, we got bigger, and we needed a partner to work with. On average, our products have a carbon footprint of 87% lower than our competitors. We’re an impact-first company, and we wanted to find a delivery partner that would care about its carbon footprint as much as we do.” Her search ultimately led her to HIVED, a London-based, zero-emissions parcel delivery startup founded and led by ecopreneurs Murvah Iqbal and Mathias Krieger in 2020. “HIVED is easy—it’s all integrated with the backend of our website. It offers same-day pickup and quick delivery,” Mineeva says. “Our customers love the fact that it’s a zero-emissions delivery. It works with everything we’re trying to do—the impact-first approach.”

“In the very early stages, it was basically us delivering parcels ourselves,” Krieger says. “But we initially got a lot of heavy, clunky cargo bikes that didn’t have any electric support, and we also underestimated how big London truly is. Once, I personally went on a delivery route, and it took me all day to deliver three parcels across the city. I was absolutely shattered at the end of the day. We realized that wasn’t how the business would scale.” Upon realizing that some vans and cars would be required, Krieger and Iqbal initially approached the problem from a place of incremental improvement. “How can we help the existing infrastructure, the existing carriers, to become greener and generally better?” Krieger recalls. In the early days of HIVED, the two sought to understand the problems facing the industry from an inside-out perspective—so much so that Krieger actually went undercover as a van driver for another parcel delivery company. “It was very apparent that there was no real coordination or intelligence layer applied on a day-to-day basis,” he says, noting that, at one point during the interview process, the interviewer showcased his delivery area by handing him a paper map. “I was like, ‘Is that what you actually use?’ And it was. We realized we couldn’t just take the old stuff and give it a fresh lick of paint. We had to think about it from scratch.” Rebuilding the right way By leveraging carbon-neutral delivery centers, e-cargo bikes, and electric vans for longer transports, HIVED is now eliminating the enormous carbon footprint of the shipping industry while improving last-mile perfor-mance. Building as they grew, Krieger and Iqbal kept technology and innovation at the fore. The result is what they call the “HIVED Mind”—the company’s central decision-making layer. Krieger and Iqbal aren’t alone in their belief that climate change is a challenge we should all be committed to solving. Beyond HIVED’s flourishing customer base, many of whom are environmentally responsible individuals like Mineeva, the proof is in their funding: The startup has raised more than $2.4 million in funding from venture capitalists (VCs) and angel investors in climate-tech, mobility, and logistics, as well as from the British government. One such investor is Hampus Jakobsson, a Swedish entrepreneur who invested in HIVED through Pale Blue Dot, a seed-stage VC firm that backs climate-tech startups across the U.S. and Europe.

THESE PROBLEMS AREN’T UNIQUE TO LONDON— THEY’RE EVERYWHERE. INSTEAD OF JUST SAVING TENS OF THOUSANDS OF CARBON EMISSIONS IN LONDON ALONE, WE CAN DO THIS IN EVERY CITY.”

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Listen to Mathias Krieger on the future of parcel delivery.

A growing crisis in need of innovation Traditional parcel delivery is one of the main drivers of air pollution. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), delivery vehicles in the 100 largest cities around the world accounted for more than 20 million tons of CO₂ emissions in 2019. WEF also estimates that by 2030, the number of delivery vehicles in those cities will increase by 36%, resulting in a 32% rise in emissions from delivery traffic and a 21% rise in congestion—the equivalent of an additional 11 minutes of commute time for each passenger every day. The situation only became more dire the following year with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the booming acceleration of e-commerce that it spurred. Per Pitney Bowes, 131 billion parcels were shipped worldwide in 2020—a threefold increase over the past six years. With more packages comes more pollution, carbon emissions, and congestion, and the trend is only escalating. “If you’re out and about in London, it’s very apparent that there’s been a tangible increase in delivery vehicles,” Krieger says. “You could just feel that the roads and the infrastructure weren’t made for it. It felt like we were approaching a tipping point of some kind.” For Iqbal and Krieger, this posed an opportunity. After meeting on a college trip to Silicon Valley in 2016, the two started a data-driven, van-based advertising company called Vanvas, but after reviewing the data and talking to drivers, they quickly pivoted away from advertising to parcel delivery itself. Their new idea? Zero-emission parcel delivery. “Climate change is the biggest problem that our generation faces,” says Iqbal. “It’s up to us to change the future of the cities for the future generations.” So, they turned to bicycles as their main mode of transportation for parcel delivery. Krieger, raised in a small German town where cycling from place to place was the norm, noticed that Central London was less hospitable to cyclists, and challenges quickly arose.

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Founder & CO-CEO, HIVED

mathias krieger

Why parcel delivery needs innovation to reach net-zero

Where other parcel delivery companies have continued to operate with archaic processes, HIVED was built with vertical integration in mind—the HIVED Mind. From Jakobsson’s perspective, that approach carries multiple benefits that can help with scale. “I don’t think there’s any limit to how fast HIVED can scale,” Jakobsson says. “The only question is how far do the founders want to go?” As far as Krieger is concerned, there’s no end in sight. “We’re still a very young company, but we work with hundreds of retailers,” he says. “We’re now looking further afield into the U.K. and across the whole world. These problems aren’t unique to London—they’re everywhere. Instead of just saving tens of thousands of carbon emissions in London alone, we can do this in every city.”

A thriving, climate-conscious community HIVED’s employees are equally enthusiastic about their roles in combating the climate crisis. “I’m not just here for the money; I’m here for the vision,” says Adam Abbasi, who works as an electric van driver at HIVED. “The climate’s changing, and we’ve got to really be there. I’m fairly young, and I’m new to the whole eco-friendly life, but I’m doing my part now. I intend to keep growing, and what makes that even better is that I’m growing with a company that is on a mission to genuinely make the world a better place.” Sara Said, a car courier driver at HIVED, feels similarly. “It makes me happy to be part of a good cause. A lot is changing in the world right now: There are more natural disasters, and global warming is such a big issue,” she says. “We’re actually reducing the amount of emissions people are putting out there, and actually making an impact and helping the world to some degree. It’s nice to be part of that journey.” The happiness of HIVED’s employees has a tangible impact on the satisfaction of its customers, too. “Their drivers and cyclists are always super friendly, smart, and polite,” Mineeva says. For BEEN’s climate-conscious customer base, the relationship with HIVED has been a hit. “We’ve definitely had a few thank you emails, especially on the bike deliveries. People say it just felt like such a wonderful, personal experience. Everyone’s trying to tackle climate change from their side, and it just creates this beautiful community.” “It’s hugely rewarding to get great customer feedback,” says Krieger. Our mission is to help our customers do the right thing in a way that’s super seamless for them. It’s great to know that the work that we are doing day in and day out has a real impact in the real world and how we solve climate change.”

“What we do at Pale Blue Dot is essentially try to be the firm who finds early-stage ideas that are super research heavy, [despite] high ambiguity and high risk, and address a huge climate change problem,” Jakobsson says. “They’re run by people who are very ambitious and who won’t stop until this problem is solved.” While the process of determining which endeavors a VC will invest in is largely predicated on interpersonal referrals and recommendations, Krieger and Iqbal came to Pale Blue Dot through the firm’s open office hours. The click was instantaneous. “I love what they do, and I love the approach because this is a problem that we experience as consumers, right?” Jakobsson says. “Anybody who’s ever ordered anything online knows this process is completely messed up. It doesn’t work for cities or citizens; it doesn’t work for the consumer; it doesn’t work for the driver. It doesn’t work for anybody.” Like Krieger and Iqbal, Jakobsson believes e-commerce is here to stay. One of the fundamental reasons for that, he notes, is urbanization. “If you live in a big city, you want to have parks, playgrounds, and living spaces, not a massive retail store right next to you. Cities don’t have room to handle the stores,” he says. “[The parcel shipping and delivery process] needs to be completely decentralized. And it’s so obvious that the service can be rebuilt. The headache is: How do you do it the right way?”

Listen to Jason Moore on how HIVED makes his life easier as a fulfillment manager.

Listen to Adam Abassi on embracing HIVED’s mission.

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MEET THE ECOPRENEUR: Murvah Iqbal of HIVED.

BEHIND THE SCENES: Episode 4 of The Ecopreneurs in London.

Emission-Free Parcel Delivery

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EXPLAINER: See why a carbon-free parcel delivery network is necessary for tackling climate change.

Eco•pre•neur: an environmentally minded entrepreneur who leads and drives climate action worldwide

“In the very early stages, it was basically us delivering parcels ourselves,” Krieger says. “But we initially got a lot of heavy, clunky cargo bikes that didn’t have any electric support, and we also underestimated how big London truly is. Once, I personally went on a delivery route, and it took me all day to deliver three parcels across the city. I was absolutely shattered at the end of the day. We realized that wasn’t how the business would scale.” Upon realizing that some vans and cars would be required, Krieger and Iqbal initially approached the problem from a place of incremental improvement. “How can we help the existing infrastructure, the existing carriers, to become greener and generally better?” Krieger recalls. In the early days of HIVED, the two sought to understand the problems facing the industry from an inside-out perspective—so much so that Krieger actually went undercover as a van driver for another parcel delivery company. “It was very apparent that there was no real coordination or intelligence layer applied on a day-to-day basis,” he says, noting that, at one point during the interview process, the interviewer showcased his delivery area by handing him a paper map. “I was like, ‘Is that what you actually use?’ And it was. We realized we couldn’t just take the old stuff and give it a fresh lick of paint. We had to think about it from scratch.” Rebuilding the right way By leveraging carbon-neutral delivery centers, e-cargo bikes, and electric vans for longer transports, HIVED is now eliminating the enormous carbon footprint of the shipping industry while improving last-mile performance. Building as they grew, Krieger and Iqbal kept technology and innovation at the fore. The result is what they call the “HIVED Mind”—the company’s central decision-making layer. “Climate change is the biggest problem that our generation faces,” says Iqbal. “It’s up to us to change the future of the cities for the future generations.” Krieger and Iqbal aren’t alone in their belief that climate change is a challenge we should all be committed to solving. Beyond HIVED’s flourishing customer base, many of whom are environmentally responsible individuals like Mineeva, the proof is in their funding: The startup has raised more than $2.4 million in funding from venture capitalists (VCs) and angel investors in climate-tech, mobility, and logistics, as well as from the British government.