To anyone who lives in an apartment complex and has never lost a package: Go buy a lottery ticket, because you are one lucky dog.
To those who weren’t touched by an angel, there’s Fetch — an off-site package delivery service for apartment buildings.
Fetch coordinates directly with residents to deliver packages by hand, taking the burden off property managers and their teams to collect, sort, store and guard packages from theft until their rightful owners arrive.
What burden, you ask? The e-commerce burden. From Blue Apron to Amazon Prime, the U.S. e-commerce market has grown by double digits the last 10 years. All those packages pile up quickly, causing headaches for property managers and stealing time from leasing agents.
The Austin-based startup raised $10.5 million in Series A funding, it announced today, to continue pushing into new markets.
It already serves Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa, Chicago and Phoenix. It will launch in Charlotte, Washington, D.C. and Portland by the end of the year and plans to add 10 to 15 more markets around the end of 2020, founder and CEO Michael Patton told Built In.
According to Patton, Fetch has never lost a client. One reason for that could be the time-saving element — the service saved one Houston property team three hours daily, a Fetch case study said — but it also gives property owners a leg up on the competition.
It’s no secret that lots of Millennials prefer to rent, and that demand drives an “amenities war” among developers looking to get high-income renters into pricier units. Be it a fitness center, outdoor pool or concierge-like package service, amenities like Fetch have the potential to boost ROI for property owners.
Fetch currently has 140 employees, and it plans to add 10 hires to its 50-person Austin team in the near future. Those roles will include finance, marketing, customer support, operations and engineering professionals, Patton said.
The round was led by Signal Peak Ventures, with participation from previous investors including Silverton Partners and Capital Factory. Fetch’s total funding is now more than $14 million.
