The two Swedish-founded last mile delivery companies, Instabox and Budbee,
announce their intention to join forces under a new holding company, Instabee. The
combination, subject to customary regulatory approval from the Swedish Competition
Authority, would create a new Group with the power to further invest in, and push the
boundaries of, consumer-centric and sustainable last-mile delivery services for the
e-commerce sector.
Instabox was founded in Stockholm in 2015, and its deliveries to smart automated parcel
lockers quickly became a preferred option for many Swedes. Instabox added home
deliveries to its offering in 2021 and today operates in five countries (Sweden, Norway,
Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany). Budbee was founded in 2016 with an initial focus
on making home deliveries smarter, faster, and more convenient for consumers. Budbee
added boxes in 2020 and today operates in five countries (Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the
Netherlands, and Belgium). The two companies have, up until today, been led by their
respective founders who will continue to play active roles. In the new company Budbee’s
founder, Fredrik Hamilton, will assume the position as CEO and Instabox’s founder, Alexis
Priftis, will become Executive Chairman of the Board.
“I have been long-term in my plans since the start, and this move is an amazing
opportunity to create something truly substantial. I have of course followed Instabox
closely during the years, and I’m impressed by their journey. This feels like a perfect
match, and I look forward to getting to know all my new colleagues. We will achieve
great things together”, says Fredrik Hamilton.
“I think that this is a great fit between two companies that share a lot of common
values. Mutual respect and admiration has grown for a long tcoime, and I’m happy
that we are now getting behind the joint goal to transform the world of e-commerce
shipping with our obsession with the customer experience and sustainability close to
heart. I’m thrilled to see what we can achieve together”, says Alexis Priftis.”
Both Instabox and Budbee have successfully challenged traditional players in the market
and pioneered the industry regarding customer-centricity and sustainability. The business
logic behind this combination relies heavily on pooling and building on the two companies’
combined expertise and know-how. Instabee will be able to challenge traditional state-owned
players and well-funded on-demand delivery companies entering the e-commerce sector.
Furthermore, leveraging potential synergies in operations and sharing technology solutions
will lead to substantial savings in terms of carbon footprint.
The new combined company is valued at 18 billion SEK, and the founders will, together with
Kinnevik, be the largest investors, a list that also contains Creades, EQT, Verdane, AMF,
Stena Sessan, H&M, CNI Nordic, and Tham Invest, among others.
“We are excited to support the combination of Instabox and Budbee. From the outset,
we have been impressed with Fredrik Hamilton’s and Budbee’s strong and consistent
execution of its growth strategy. With the combination, we expect Instabee to
continue to develop its customer proposition, building on the two companies’
combined expertise and know-how. We look forward to continuing to be a leading
shareholder in Instabee as its growth journey continues”, says Georgi Ganev, CEO
of Kinnevik.
“Over the last years, Instabox and Budbee have both revolutionized their respective
fields of the last-mile delivery space. As a major shareholder in Instabox we are very
impressed with the historic achievements by Alexis and the Instabox team, and this
next step of combining two Swedish entrepreneurial success stories makes for an
even more exciting future. A future we are very much looking forward to being part
of”, says John Hedberg, Creades CEO and Instabox Chairman.