On the road to success, logistics connects the manufacturing businesses to their final destination of victory. But in terms of moving and evolving along with the ever-evolving tech, the sector was not ready to fast-track.
Moreover, the industry was reluctant to organize, strategies, optimize, innovate, and upgrade its existing unorganized and unoptimized business model. This is where three childhood friends sensed a revolutionary business opportunity with their entrepreneurial spirit and visionary mindset.
They thought, what if they could establish a modern tech-enabled business-to-business logistics and delivery solution provider. Rather than doing logistics illogically, they will put their combined logical wisdom to create a tech-based platform to create India’s first tech-novel delivery and logistics network.
With this out-of-the-box idea, the three best buddies Nishant Vora, Pratish Sanghvi, and Jignesh Patel launched GRAB a Grub Services Ltd. or GRAB, India’s first budding startup to offer a tech-abled delivery solution to businesses.
Nishant is the Co-founder and Director, Heads Operations, HR and Strategy at GRAB. At GRAB, he leads human resources, operations and strategy. Nishant helped the company establish a foothold and pioneered tech-enabled logistics solutions.
Nishant shared, “Over the last nine years, Grab has built an expansive fleet of bike riders that move products in a hyperlocal region as well as intracity deliveries via our four-wheeler network.”
Nishant has a solid business history and is a visionary and people person, having started three successful firms.
Nishant elaborated, “Our logistics platform is for businesses ranging from restaurants, online grocers, offline and online retail commerce, Kirana stores, pharmacies, banks, telecom – in other words – for any business that seeks to deliver a product on a recurring basis.”
Nishant graduated from Mohawk College in Ontario, Canada, and has received numerous awards throughout his academic and professional career. Before launching GRAB, he worked with recognised businesses such as Toyota, General Electric, and others.
Today, GRAB, a subsidiary company of Reliance Industries (Reliance Retail), is also the exclusive in-house logistics provider for JioMart and is closely working with 500 other clients like Ola Dash, KFC, Zepto, Flipkart, Shoppers Stop, McDonald’s, Swiggy, and Big Basket, to name a few.
Nishant said further, “Our technology platform and delivery network offer varied services including On Demand, GrabEx, First Mile, Forward, Reverse, and IntraCity that caters to businesses of all sizes and segments, across varied sectors.”
Nishant was speaking with Insights Success for its edition of ‘The Fastest Growing Startups in Maharashtra’, where he divulged his firm’s journey, current phase in the new normal, and how he plans to take GRAB to new heights of success with his 15 years of broad experience.
Please tell us about GRAB in detail.
GRAB is a Mumbai-based company founded in 2013 when the last-mile delivery market was budding in the country.
GRAB is India’s largest and fastest-growing tech-abled last-mile logistics solution company that caters to businesses ranging from restaurants, online grocers, offline and online retail, e-commerce platforms, Kirana stores, pharmacies, etc.
The company focuses on providing a host of technology-backed logistics solutions to businesses that allow them to deliver cost-effectively and efficiently to their customers.
The company’s vast clientele gets connected to the crowdsourced network of Grab’s 100k+ supply fleet to fulfil the pickup and delivery on a highly customizable framework.
Over the years, GRAB has built an expansive fleet network that comprises riders, three-wheeler and four-wheeler vehicles, vans and electric bikes. It caters to thousands of Indian cities with coverage from Kargil to Kanyakumari, with delivery reach to more than 13,000 pin codes.
What were the initial challenges that you faced while commencing your start-up?
A decade ago, the logistics industry was unorganized in terms of fixed delivery setup, no technology input, unoptimized costs, unutilized resources, etc. This led to untimely deliveries of products to the end customers.
When we launched our platform, we were the first movers offering such services to businesses. There were no ready reckoners for us to refer to, and we completely started from scratch.
From working on the tech stack to understanding the processes and setting up hyperlocal logistics models was challenging initially. But we achieved all of them by trial and error to arrive at the suitable model that has pioneered this industry today.
The team created a tech-abled delivery platform that elevated the entire delivery experience from smart order assignment, delivery tracking, and navigation to the customer while optimizing the cost for its client through building a strong network of fleets.
What would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs who are willing to start their own venture/business?
It is good to have a successful entrepreneur or a businessman as a mentor if you start your own venture. But, if you cannot find yourself a mentor, you need to follow these tips to stay motivated and stay in the game during your journey.
- Do what you love: It is crucial for you to understand the business in and out that you are planning to work on.
- Embrace challenges: As Shri Dhirubhai Ambani said, “Pursue your goals even in the face of difficulties and convert adversities into opportunities.” You need to keep trying new things when you are starting a business, or else you wouldn’t know what is working and what is not.
- Have a vision: Be clear in your vision for your business. The market is very cluttered; hence you shouldn’t lose focus on what you want to achieve for your business.
- Believe in yourself: There will be obstacles when starting your own business. However, it would be best if you found ways to achieve success. As they say- Find a way or make one!
Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on how the involvement of emerging technologies enhances the industry and what advancements can we expect in the future?
The involvement of emerging technologies is bringing a greater level of efficiencies to our industry. For instance, Grab’s adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) is driving the size of the fleet needed in a specific neighborhood at a particular time of the day and also aiding delivery partners to choose which is the optimal route to take basis traffic conditions or the most optimal entry point in a large complex with multiple gates and so on.
While real-time tracking and routing algorithms have seen significant advancements in our industry, we expect further evolutions in an integrated yet modular tech stack for end-to-end supply chain processes.
Where do you envision GRAB eventually, and how do you plan to embrace the changes happening in your industry?
Currently, GRAB is present in all the metro cities and Tier-2 cities. Our footprint is across the corners of the nation, literally- we have riders in Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
Given the emergence of the quick commerce platforms, we have elevated our routing algorithms to ensure customer and client satisfaction is achieved. At the same time, we have ensured rider safety which remains the key aspect.
The Leader Opines
Why do today’s Startups pursue ideas and ideals?
India is known for the power of its young and proactive population that is on the verge of making substantial breakthroughs in the industry. An Economic Survey has shown that India has become the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world after the US and China. The Survey noted that the government recognised over 14,000 new startups in 2021-22 against 733 in 2016-17.
The startup ecosystem is growing at a pace that the country has never seen before. This will be challenging for businesses to come up with innovative ideas that will solve a purpose as well as be profitable. If you combine growth and purpose at the initial stage of your journey, then it might be conflicting because as a budding entrepreneur, your aim should be to come up with a breakthrough idea and achieve product-market fit.
A good entrepreneurial idea should have the potential to capture the audience’s needs that they are looking for in the marketplace. Finding a loophole and implementing it in a particular segment and adding value to people’s lives is the key to a successful business.
If this is achieved, growth will automatically follow. People driven by ideals along with their business ideas bring more value to the customers. To thrive and sustain your business in the ecosystem, you need to find ways to keep innovating your product so that your idea and ideal both flourish in the market.
– Nishant Vora, Co-founder and Director, Heads Operations, HR and Strategy at GRAB
