The London peer-to-peer start-ups that will deliver anything to your door

From flour to a letter to your ex, these start-ups will deliver anything in London. Amelia Heathman talks to the founders about how they're planning to take on Amazon
Peyk's 3,000+ couriers are available 24/7 to delivery the items you need
Peyk
Amelia Heathman11 June 2020

Home delivery isn’t just a luxury nowadays, since lockdown it’s been a necessity. From scrabbling to get online shopping slots to having medication delivered to your door, start-ups offering delivery have boomed in the past few weeks

Peyk is no different. The London start-up offers a peer-to-peer delivery model. Need some ingredients for dinner? Log on to the app and book a personal courier who will be dispatched to fill in the order and deliver it to your door.

Peyk’s 3,000+ couriers are available 24/7 and demand has shot up 60 per cent in the coronavirus lockdowns, with user numbers increasing 45 per cent. There’s been a 20 per cent increase in new couriers too as Londoners who have been made redundant or furloughed seek to replace lost incomes.

Some of the most popular orders on the platform include medication, gifts for family members, food parcels and items in short supply such as toilet roll. One Peyk courier delivered a returned love letter from an ex recently.

The start-up was founded by Salman Moghami back in 2018. “Peer-to-peer couriers are widely used across Asia and the Middle East, when sending things to friends and family. Peyk is now bringing a similar service to the capital, revolutionising the courier service industry and transforming the way Londonders send items to one another.”

The app’s couriers carry unique security labels and seals to ensure each parcel stays secure during transportation. Customers can also track orders via the app, with orders often on their way within 20 minutes of placing a delivery.

“The increase in demand that we have seen for Peyk during the lockdown confirms that in today’s 24/7 world individuals need to be able to send whatever they want, to whoever they want, wherever they want to across the city they live in and whenever they need to,” said Moghami.

Peyk has competition, however, in the form of Pinga. Pinga, which also launched in London in 2018, works in a similar way to Peyk in that you post a request on the app, and a tasker picks it up within 30 minutes and deliveries the item you need to your door.

Pinga wants to reduce reliance on websites like Amazon by connecting people to items in local stores
Pinga

Since lockdown, Pinga has seen requests on the app increase by 200 per cent with the number of new visitors per day to the website growing from 919 in February to 10,819 on one day in late March. The majority of requests have been classic supermarket staples, though there is one regular customer that only ever orders custard, and one who recently put in an order for a very specific flavour of baked Wotsits.

Co-founder Michael Goulden thinks the demand for Pinga is here to stay. “We expect a long-term bounce in interest for on-demand delivery even as restrictions completely lift. When people discover something that works and is effective, they’ll usually carry on using it,” he says.

Part of the long-term mission for the company is to become a viable alternative to Amazon by really digitising the high street, and is making plans for this for the next version of the app, due to be released later this month. This will allow you to search for an item and find it in a local store, before ordering it through a Pinga courier.

“We estimate at least 60 per cent of what you order from Amazon is available in a shop 2km from where you live through an independent store or big branded retailer, but you currently don’t know whether it’s in stock or if they deliver,” says Goulden. “The new app capability will allow you to search for an item, locate it in your local store, and purchase it with same-day delivery, zero emissions and no cardboard boxes or unnecessary packaging at a competitive price.”

The P2P delivery market is just getting started.

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