Startups During An Exogenous Shock: Creating, Innovating, Connecting

Following is an excerpt from a Special Feature on ‘Startups During An Exogenous Shock: Creating, Innovating, Connecting’ that appeared on pages 56, 57, and 64 of CARGO CONNECT, VOL XII ISSUE X SEPTEMBER 2021.

Soham Chokshi, Co-founder and CEO at Shipsy Logistics, the end-to-end global trade and logistics management startup company dedicated to simplifying trading and logistics, which started operations in 2015, is well aware of the fact that logistics startup community has done its best to deal with the crisis. “At Shipsy, we see challenges as opportunities, and the year 2020 was one that had brought us plenty. We saw it as the right time to enhance our resources, both from a workforce and technology perspective. Despite work from home constraints, we expanded our workforce by 25 per cent through virtual engagement/onboarding drives. We created an internal pandemic task force to ensure our workforce and their families can avail help when they need it.” 

“We have set up our regional headquarters in Dubai, expanded our leadership suite, amplified technology capabilities, and entered into valuable partnerships. We were even able to empower ACT Grants, Udhyam, and DTDC to streamline the distribution of COVID-critical equipment through our smart logistics management platform.”

Shipsy’s state-of-the-art platform leverages AI, big data, and cloud capabilities to help customers reduce logistics costs, achieve transparency, and ensure timely delivery of goods across different transportation modes. The company presently offers freight procurement, transportation management, logistics management solutions via intelligent modules and centralised dashboard configurations.

At Shipsy, the success and innovation ratio is just improving, says Chokshi. “Most of our plans revolve around resolving current and future business challenges for our customers. To empower businesses to build future-ready logistics operations, we have worked round the clock to enhance our capabilities. For instance, our smart Auto Allocation system now delivers a 94 per cent success rate. We have made our Hub operations tool completely mobile. We enhanced our AI engine to optimise delivery routes literally in real-time. This has helped our customers reduce the distance travelled by 5 per cent and increase average trips by 6 per cent.”

“Our latest deployment of gamification tools is assisting businesses to boost delivery productivity and driver performance.” Chokshi adds, “Completely automating logistics partner selection based on multiple factors, rate negotiations, and deploying Blockchain technology to make financial transactions safer and traceable are other areas we are focussing on.”

“Making deliveries eco-friendly, helping businesses manages unprecedented demand-supply gaps, and empowering brands to use ‘customer experience’ as a well-defined revenue stream, pose great opportunities for us. We also foresee tremendous potential in the D2C segment,” he goes on.