{"id":45967,"date":"2023-10-20T15:47:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/sydney-startup-zoom2u-secures-1-85-million-as-uber-threat-looms-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:47:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:47:36","slug":"sydney-startup-zoom2u-secures-1-85-million-as-uber-threat-looms-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/sydney-startup-zoom2u-secures-1-85-million-as-uber-threat-looms-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney startup Zoom2u secures $1.85 million as Uber threat looms – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Zoom2u<\/div>\n

A Sydney on-demand courier startup has secured $1.85 million in funding as it looks to accelerate expansion plans across Australia and brace for Uber’s entrance into the market.<\/p>\n

Zoom2u launched in 2014 offering an app allowing customers to book same day or overnight couriers and track them in real-time.<\/p>\n

The startup closed a $850,000 funding round<\/a> in 2015 and now delivers thousands of packages each months.<\/p>\n

The latest funding round comes from a range of existing and new investors, including Deals Direct co-founder Mike Rosenbaum and experienced tech investors Anthony Klok and Tony Gandel.<\/p>\n

Proven traction<\/h3>\n

Zoom2u founder and CEO Steve Orenstein says that he let the \u201cnumbers do the talking\u201d when pitching to the potential investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur numbers really showed what we were doing, and investors could see that customers were benefitting from what we offered,\u201d Orenstein tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a number of high net worth individuals, but we chose not to talk to VCs.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the company’s new round of funding, Orenstein says he\u2019s looking to continue to grow the business, focusing on the operational side.<\/p>\n

Currently, Zoom2u is based within Australia, and Orenstein says the company has \u201cno plans” to expand internationally.<\/p>\n

Zoom2u thrives off the modern day “want it now” culture, providing live tracking and short delivery time for purchases.<\/p>\n

Customers can provide feedback and rate their service, which Zoom2U uses to improve their service.<\/p>\n

Lofty competition<\/h3>\n

Billion-dollar startup giant Uber is looking at launching a service similar to what Zoom2u offers, and is currently trialing UberRUSH in a few states in the US.<\/p>\n

The service allows Uber drivers to courier packages, and is likely to expand in the near future.<\/p>\n

But Orenstein says he isn\u2019t worried about Uber\u2019s potential competiton, and that the process is \u201ca lot different to delivering people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been trialling it at a basic level, but very few companies have been successful at doing multiple things exceptionally well,\u201d Orenstein says.<\/p>\n

Advice for other founders<\/h3>\n

Having seeked investment before, Orenstein has experience in the process, and says it\u2019s important to \u201ctalk to lots of different people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about finding individuals and having a conversation with these individuals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to identify and display what the problem in the industry is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orenstein\u2019s advice for companies ready to seek investment is to show people are willing to pay for your product.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to show to an investor that you have good traction and that there\u2019s a need for your product,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The changing landscape in Australia has also made it easy for young startups to find funding, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started my first company, looking back, it was substantially harder to get investments then,\u201d Orenstein says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more opportunities today, a lot more funds out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Sydney on-demand courier startup has secured $1.85 million in funding as it looks to accelerate expansion plans across Australia and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,11,3,4,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}