Smooth delivery

Kushal Nahata, Gautam Kumar, and Gaurav Srivastava, all engineering graduates shared their passion for solving every-day problems leveraging technology right from their college days. After graduating from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, the trio started their journey by developing a sensor-based automation system that assisted differently abled people. Soon they created a GPS tracking system for vehicles that enabled the owner of a car to track the real-time location of the vehicle. They also developed an application by the name 'Suraksha' for alerting people about LPG leakage that was acknowledged by Bharat Petroleum. However, it was when they set out to improve the customer experience in e commerce deliveries, that their most successful venture FarEye was born. In most cases the customers were in the dark about their orders and had no information when their order would arrive and in what condition. This led the trio to work on a solution that enabled logistics organisations to manage the orders in an efficient and transparent manner. After talking to several e-commerce players, FarEye tied up with Jabong to help its then logistics arm GoJavas with product delivery. FarEye started in 2013 with automating the entire process and making it digitalised so that the rider & the parcel were traceable real-time. Everyone involved in the process — delivery boys, logistics company, eCommerce player and the customer could see immediate value in the solution, and it was an instant hit.

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Working and scaling with multiple clients in the coming years,  led the team to build industry’s first workflow engine  to enable enterprises to reduce time to build new delivery processes from a quarter(s) to week(s) including testing and scaling.

Achievements

Starting with one client in 2013, FarEye now works with the largest enterprises in the world like DHL, Walmart, Amway, Blue Dart enabling them run their logistics operations efficiently. Today it is a well-acknowledged player facilitating 10+ million transactions per day across 20+ countries for more than 150+ customers.

It is one of India’s fastest growing start-ups with a 280 per cent increase in ARR year on year. Clocking triple-digit revenue growth since the past three years, FarEye is now targeting a 325 per cent growth in revenue this fiscal. “We have been mentioned by Gartner for our real-time visibility & vehicle routing & scheduling technology, 7 times”, says Gautam Kumar.

In November 2018, the company also acquired Dipper Technologies, an IoT platform that provides visibility and predictability in freight movement; reinforcing its plans to solve challenges by having cutting edge technology for carriers and shippers in moving goods. 

Future plans

Nearly 12 per cent, ($10 trillion) of the global GDP is spent on logistics (CAGR: 7.5 per cent,). Yet, as per the World Bank, 19 per cent, of all shipments are delivered delayed beyond SLAs. About 30 per cent, of this spend is to tackle inefficiencies, bottlenecks and theft. FarEye aims to empower organisations to reduce this spend on uncertainties and enable efficient and reliable logistics

With three new articulated product lines and leadership position in India, FarEye is on the path of massive global expansion with offices in Chicago, London, Dubai & Singapore to enable manufacturers, retailers, 3PLs globally with Delivery, Fulfilment and Transportation offerings. 

Challenges

FarEye started its operations at a time when organisations were slow in digitising key supply chain and logistics processes. Back then logistics was perceived as a cost center rather than a brand differentiator like it is seen today.

“People were used to the traditional way of working. Embracing new technologies was not easy and this panned out to be a major challenge in the initial years”, says Kushal Nahata, CEO & Co-founder. However, with the inception of FarEye key business stakeholders gradually started seeing the benefits of embracing digital technologies in the guise of increasing operational efficiencies, direct impact on the revenue streams and rising delivery happiness scores. “Eventually, the results inspired our clients to expand the scope of our project and implement FarEye across geographies”, he adds.

A word of advice

It is supremely important to focus on the team that is working behind the scenes and the culture that gets developed as organisations grow. Promote a culture nurturing and creating leaders at your organisation- make people the owners of their tasks and give them the freedom to experiment or fail in the process. 

"If I had to decode three habits to becoming a successful entrepreneur, they would be - Hard work, persistence and passion. It is extremely important to be passionate and completely convinced about the problem you are trying to solve. Focus on setting & achieving small incremental goals that deliver consistent value and always be open and agile enough take quick, data-driven- decisions", says Nahata.

— As told to Geetu Vaid