On February 9th, our portfolio company, Sidecar, announced that it will take same-day delivery nationwide through its program people + packages. Sidecar explained it like this, ”If you’ve taken a ride in San Francisco lately, there’s a good chance there was a passenger in the trunk — a package!” In a six month pilot program, drivers in San Francisco transported riders and packages to various destinations. Combining ride-sharing with same day delivery of various good from hot food to flowers is a powerful solution.

Why is this big?
By combining people and packages, Sidecar can offer companies same-day delivery at prices 80 percent cheaper than traditional delivery services as well as cutting delivery time in half.

How do we know it’s working?
In just six short months, Sidecar Deliveries has seen explosive growth. Same-day delivery now represents 10% of Sidecar’s San Francisco ride volume.

Why is it working?
By figuring out the fastest and lowest cost same-day delivery approach, everybody wins — from e-commerce companies to drivers and riders. In fact, the unique combination of people and packages makes shipping so affordable that small business can now take advantage of the service. Sidecar drivers earn 75% more when they deliver both people and packages, which in turn allows riders to take advantage of lower wait times, more drivers and even lower prices.

Why this changes everything:

Delivery as a service will change the way the world works. Allowing e-commerce customers to outsource the cost (and often harrowing logistics) of delivery liberates them to focus on their primary business. One partner, EAT24, reported Sidecar reduced delivery time by almost half — on top of doubling their revenue when Sidecar drivers served them.

Good friend and fellow Sidecar investor Fred Wilson said in his response to Sidecar’s announcement, “The innovation cycle in the “ridesharing” market is breathtaking. If you want to stay in the game you have to keep innovating and do that quickly. The result is new services, new markets, and new possibilities. And people plus packages is exactly that.”

We could not agree more. Co-Founder and CEO, Sunil Paul, has put together a brilliant team of operators and investors who love to push the limits of innovation to the delight of all. Once again, Sidecar is leading the industry with radical innovation in software as it did first with ridesharing and the creation of a marketplace in the solution. Now, by bundling delivery and ride sharing, e-commerce is about to explode again with the advent of low cost same-day delivery.

As Sunil says, “Our vision is that one day any business will be able to take an order and get it to the customer in an hour, and that every business, large or small, will offer same day delivery because they can outsource the cost and logistics to us. We’re on our way.”

Ride on!