PeykBot - Investment Memo

UK's First Fully Modular Autonomous Delivery Robot

Peyk specialises in sustainable urban delivery through manufacturing of modular electric ground robots. Founded in 2018 in London as an on-demand peer-to-peer delivery platform, Peyk pivoted into autonomous mobile robots in 2022 given increasing driver shortages.

The autonomous delivery robot called PeykBot offers last-mile logistics solutions to businesses via a robot-as-a-service model. Customers pay a monthly leasing fee for access to the robots along with training, maintenance and support.

The company currently has a team of 18 people, with industry level engineers working globally to facilitate assembly in the UK and soon in the UAE to meet increasing client interest.

Problem

The last mile delivery segment is plagued by substantial inefficiencies that incur high costs and environmental externalities. Traffic congestion coupled with sub-optimal routing causes up to 30% late parcel deliveries, wasting billions annually across decreased productivity and customer dissatisfaction. Additionally, the high fuel consumption and emissions from vans and motorbikes utilized for last-mile worsens air pollution, noise, and carbon footprint.

• Last mile delivery accounts for up to 40% of total shipment costs due to inefficient routes and traffic
• Vans and motorbikes used for last-mile create noise, emissions and congestion
• Driver shortage in logistics industry leads to higher costs and inability to meet volatility

The logistics industry also grapples with severe labor shortages particularly in last-mile which relies heavily on the unstructured gig economy. Altogether between expenses from congestion delays, air pollution, and driver shortage, last mile delivery incurs exorbitant economic and societal expenses.

Solution

Peyk delivers an innovative solution through its autonomous, customizable electric delivery robot called PeykBot. It provides sustainable Last mile delivery leveraging ground robots that navigate via pavements and bike lanes using a combination of proprietary software and remote human oversight. PeykBot offers numerous advantages compared to traditional driver-based logistics for last mile transportation. It slashes delivery costs by up to 90% by eliminating fuel, labor, and minimizing traffic impacts relative to vans

• Peyk offers customizable electric ground robots - PeykBot - for sustainable last mile delivery
• Key benefits vs drivers: 90% cheaper, zero emissions, faster delivery times
• Modular attachments allow PeykBot to serve multiple commercial use cases

The modular compartment attachments meet requirements across parcel, grocery, food, medical item, laundry delivery and even indoor advertising.

The Technology (in more detail)

Benefits of Peyk’s OpCo/ PropCo structure for investors

Revenue/Commercial

• From 2018 to 2022 operated as a peer-to-peer delivery platform. Generated £400k in revenue with 65,000+ Active users, 4000+ riders and 1500+ businesses.
• 3 contracts for 20 units at £850pm (BFL group - international discount retailer based in UAE, LemoniLab, Soliton Electronics)
• Contracts for 50 robots from logistic firms and universities within the GCC (15 units for Pass Delivery in Qatar, 10 units with Saudi Arabia's AyMakan and 10 units for Coozyn AI Delivery in Iraq. £50k MRR
• MOUs and pilots with UK Cranfield University , Dubai's University of Wollongong, Pass Delivery Qatar, Saudi Arabia's AyMakan and Coozyn (AI-based food delivery platform).

Funding

• Bootstrapped and completed 3 small angel rounds for first 3 years totalling to £240k
• Raised £500k from angels late 2021 to grow the peer-to-peer delivery and shifted funding to allocated for robots post Brexit and so called 'freelance drivers crisis'

Product & Platform

• Robot designed and developed fully in house catered to own needs and specs
• First robot designed for Europe and GCC. Off road Durability + Rain and Dust Resistant
• In house teleoperation monitoring + proprietary mapless autonomous navigation software
• Completes 3 rounds of MVP robots and current manufactures first 5 robots, currently active doing trials with select partners
• £300k spend on R&D and manufacturing
• Streamlined manufacturing process to reduce unit COGS to sub £5,5000

See the technology in more detail

Awards & Accelerators

Team

• Full time technical Founder and CEO graduated in Business Management in Top UK University and 5+ years hands-on experience on logistics.
• CMO with 10+ years experience with industry giants such as IKEA, Boots, Hilton Hotels.
• 10+ previous round investors who act as Senior Mentors and Strategic Advisors for Peyk.
• 5x Expert Industrial Product Designers, Mechanical, Mechatronics and Electronic Engineers.
• 3x AI, Computer Vision and ROS developers
• 4x Backend, Front end, iOS and Android Developers

PeykBot supports modular attachments to cater various use cases. The main configuration is the parcel attachment that carries up to 50kg of parcel payload.

On the right, you can see the advertisement module showing that PeykBot can be used for other uses than delivery.

Manufacturing USP

Peyk has a unique USP enabling it to manufacture the robots at one third of the cost incurred by competitors notably by replacing the very expensive Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor used by competitors with a combination of cameras controlled by a proprietary AI software. The peykBots have already been extensively used in various countries and environments.

Benefits of Peyk’s OpCo/ PropCo structure for investors

PeykBot uses the proprietary technology of AI algorithms to drive autonomously in the town.

PeykBot includes a cloud-based digital platform offering complete fleet oversight along with consumer facing apps. Functions of the platform:

• Individual robot locations can be tracked via GPS on a central geo-visualized dashboard showing nearby delivery jobs.
• The vision data builds occupancy grid maps uploaded periodically to enhance path planning and object avoidance.
• Customers can replay completed routes to improve algorithms.
• Customers and end users can track orders and unlock deliveries via mobile apps.

The dashboard allows scheduled maintenance trips and remote diagnostics with proactive part replacement.

APIs also enable integration into existing logistic systems for order intake and job assignment leveraging PeykBot’s location and demand-based optimization algorithms.

Previous rounds

Peyk has successfully raised £740,000 to date across 3 early-stage rounds to initially scale up its peer-to-peer delivery platform operations before pivoting into autonomous robot manufacturing in 2021.

• 1st round was in 2018 was £70,000 led by a private high net worth angel investor. This pre-seed capital enabled launch of Peyk's same day on-demand delivery services leveraging crowd-sourced drivers.
• 2nd angel round in 2019 brought another £50,000 and £120,000 from a two private angel investors. This validated market traction for digital optimized human-led logistics
• 3rd financing round was a £500,000 (tranche within a £1.2 million) round in 2021 at a £4 million pre-money valuation. This pivotal seed raise allowed pivoting engineering efforts into the custom electric delivery robot PeykBot while maintaining staff and operations continuity. The round drove recent internal valuation benchmarks.

Together the 3 priced rounds have provided crucial runway for Peyk to evolve its model, prove out initial product-market validation and establish authority around autonomous mobility.

Next possible round: Q2 2025 (£1.5m - expansion to USA)

Structure of the business and enhanced tax relief

Peyk has organised its business using an OpCo-PropCo structure as explained in the document linked below (‘Benefits of Peyk’s OpCo-PropCo structure’) granting in effect to investors a beneficial ownership of the peykBots (which gives them an additional security for their investment) and – as a collateral benefit based on first-year capital allowances - a significant additional tax relief (expected to be 78% of the investment amount for a 40% taxpayer) on top of the standard 30% initial EIS tax relief.

The equity subscription under EIS is offered at a £4m pre-money valuation and, as explained above, on top of the standard 30% initial EIS tax relief, there is an additional tax relief expected to be equal to 195% times the marginal tax rate of the investor, i.e. 78% additional tax relief for a 40% taxpayer. It is therefore expected that an investor subscribing to this offering who is a 40% taxpayer will get back in tax relief an amount equal to 108% (30%+78%) of his/her subscription.

Benefits of Peyk’s OpCo/ PropCo structure for investors

Deal Terms for current round Peyk is raising a £400K seed round on a £4M pre-money valuation. The round is expected to close by Nov 2024. This is a priced round based on milestones, stage of growth and confirmed contracts from clients. This round: closed £232,500 investment already transferred and another £210,000 amount is committed, with a match-funding of £500k once £500k is reached.

Venture funding into the delivery robot space has accelerated drastically in 2022 and 2023 after previous slowdown during pandemic. Pitchbook estimates $592 million was invested across mobility and transport robotics in 2022, up 60%. Driver shortages, demand for contactless delivery, and policy shifts now allowing robot pilots have boosted interest.

For autonomous last mile delivery specifically, major rounds were raised by

1. Refraction AI 🇺🇸 - ($40M Series A)
2. Ottonomy 🇺🇸 ($3M)
3. Serve Robotics 🇺🇸 ($13M)
4. Starship 🇺🇸 ($100M) last year.

At least two direct competitors got acquired indicating growing consolidation. Postmates sold to Uber in 2020 for $2.65B to expand food delivery with ground robot potential given Uber's earlier acquisition of Otto's self-driving truck team. Similarly, Shopify acquired Return Logic, a returns focused autonomous robotics company in 2021 to strengthen merchant delivery offerings.

Growth drivers

Several strong tailwinds propel growth potential for Peyk's autonomous delivery robots and heighten investment appetite.

1. Worsening labor shortages with over 75% logistics firms unable to recruit drivers sufficient to meet rapidly rising last mile volumes.
2. Regulatory shifts seen in autonomous vehicle policies - NHTSA now allowing small robot sidewalk delivery in US.
3. Sustainability concerns putting scrutiny on pollution from existing transport makes the zero emission delivery robots more appealing.
4. Venture funding for promising robotics startups keeps rising YoY indicating investor optimism.

Revenue Model

Peyk generates revenue primarily through a robot-as-a-service leasing model, charging a monthly fee per robot between £850-1000. Additional revenue comes from customization options.

Unit Economics

Production cost per robot is approximately £5,250. At an average lease price of £925 per month, payback period per unit is under 5 months. An additional 45%+ gross margin is generated throughout the robot lifetime from the monthly lease payments.

Growth Drivers

• In 2024, target is to manufacture and deploy 35 units based on signed contracts
• For 2025, goal is to scale to over 150 robots targeting larger enterprise contracts
• Key growth enablers are expanded production capacity, larger sales team, and consolidated software

Manufacturing & Capacity

• £46K allocated in 2024 to boost workshop stations, testing infrastructure
• Further £143K budgeted in 2025 to upgrade assembly lines, quality controls to improve reliability
• Expanded facilities will allow manufacturing 150+ robots in 2025, positioning Peyk to capitalize on enterprise and government partnerships

PeykBot targets two initial customer groups: small/medium businesses with recurring delivery cycles, and large enterprises/government entities focused on eco-friendly transport. Segmentation allows customization for early risk mitigation combined with high-lifetime-value accounts.

UK GTM

• UK: Academic partnerships provide proving grounds before expansions into restaurants/retailers in London/Milton Keynes (smart cities)

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) GTM

• Build relationship with Smart Cities in the GCC and expand to early adopters in food delivery and last mile logistics

The EU represents a future high-potential geography for scaled commercialization of delivery robots leveraging its density as well as initiatives around smart mobility. By 2024, last-mile delivery traffic will have risen 20% especially from ecommerce and food orders as online shopping grows at a 32% CAGR across Europe. Congestion already costs EU countries $121 billion annually underscoring the need for sustainable optimization.

Specifically, the autonomous on-demand last mile delivery space is projected to reach €17 billion by 2030. Currently over 60 European cities have ongoing trials for sidewalk robots from startups like Delivery Robots Paris and Milo in Finland. EU lawmakers are expected to establish standardized regulations across member countries for governing self-driving technology by 2025. Already cities like Milton Keynes in the UK and Vienna, Austria have pedestrianized zones where PeykBot vehicles can legally operate based on existing approvals. This will expand territory for new data collection.

PeykBot's weather resistance and modular customization abilities make the platform primed for European expansion as regulators catch up to demands for de-carbonization. With heavy R&D priorities across the EU, Peyk will leverage state investments in sustainable mobility.

Originally bootstrapped as an on-demand peer delivery marketplace, Peyk saw drivers shortfall in COVID's wake. But they responded quickly to diversify into autonomous robot manufacturing realizing sizable existing funding could still build momentum.

Led by CEO Salman Moghimi who has business development pedigree from Bayes Business School and passion for transportation problem-solving, the team packs entrepreneurial vigor. CMO Ali Reza brings digital marketing leadership including Peyk's early growth.

This founding team oversees technology teams in London and engineering leads based offshore ensuring development-to-deployment coordination. Their current 18 member squad combines robotics, mobility, and platform expertise key to offering PeykBot as a managed hardware plus software delivery solution.

Origin Story by founder Salman Moghimi

Competitors Landscape

This offers Peyk ample room for continued market development leveraging existing customer interest and purpose-built modular customization.

🇺🇸 Compared to US peers focusing tightly on food, PeykBot’s parcel, retail and medical transport capabilities tackle wider urban logistics needs. Their advanced sensors and remote oversight also enables higher autonomy levels than American competitors.

🇪🇺 Regionally European startups like Deliveries AI and Turkey’s Yapek offer nascent competition. However first backend integrations with Middle Eastern mobility firms signals strong client traction for PeykBot internationally.

🇨🇳 However Chinese entrants could pose eventual risks given rapid iterative deployment at lower price points albeit compromised reliability currently. Hence entrenching support infrastructure across chosen territories quickly forms a vital barrier leveraging Peyk’s early technical sophistication and multi-industry relevance.