Streamlining the delivery market. How a Ukrainian startup works
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In our recurring Who Are These People segment, Vector offers founders an opportunity to discuss their projects, covering aspects such as their products, marketing strategies, monetisation, investments, and plans. The focus this time is on OnGo, a Ukrainian startup whose B2B SaaS platform offers a comprehensive solution for urban and regional delivery, enabling businesses of any scale to optimize complex logistics and achieve complete operational transparency.
Vector’s editor-in-chief Yuliia Tkach interviewed Oleksii Denysiuk, co-founder and Chief of Strategy, about the product’s features, promotion, investments, and plans.
Conception
The startup has five co-founders:
- Andrii Holubinskyi, CEO/CPO. He has over two decades of experience in technological IT, spanning from building international departments and driving sales to securing product contracts. He previously held positions at Luxoft and Apostera.
- Dmytro Dolzhenko, CTO. His career includes over 15 years of IT experience, specialising in technological product development, ranging from mathematical models to embedded systems. He previously held positions at Luxoft and Apostera.
- Oleksii Denysiuk, Chief of Strategy and Data. He has over 15 years of IT expertise, from development to the establishment of technology IT teams and processes. He has a background spanning both the outsourcing and product sectors. He previously held positions at Luxoft, Infopulse, and Apostera.
- Dmytro Yurchuk, Head of Engineering. His career reflects more than 15 years of IT experience, marked by contributions to both the development and process management of cutting-edge technological solutions. He previously held positions at Luxoft and Apostera.
- Mykhailo Sokirnyk, Head of Operations. He brings over 25 years of experience in technological IT, ranging from developing embedded navigation systems and digital video editing systems (software, circuitry, FPGA) to building and managing IT and operational teams. He previously held positions at Luxoft and Apostera.
The founders had known each other for many years before launching OnGo. Their prior experience includes tenure at an outsourcing company focused on the development of the automotive sector. OnGo builds upon the founders’ prior entrepreneurial endeavours. Upon leaving their former workplace, their first venture was the tech project Apostera, which focused on pioneering augmented reality solutions for vehicles. That project ended in a successful exit when it was acquired by a large corporation.
Oleksii recounts that OnGo’s concept took shape around 2019, sparked by Oleksii’s frustrating experience with moving apartments. Oleksii notes, «After countless calls and broken agreements made the process expensive and time-consuming, we decided to develop a solution to simplify relocations for both large businesses and individuals—ideally, relocating anything from one place to another with just one click».
Established in 2019, the startup commenced its first efforts on hypothesis generation and testing in 2020. Initially, the product launched as a B2C offering, built on the hypothesis of a freight taxi. «However, 2020 showed that the concept couldn’t stand alone effectively and needed vast marketing expenditure. Starting in 2021, the focus shifted towards business clients, offering turnkey delivery solutions.
Business clients found great value in the service’s rapid delivery, consistent quality, and reliability, alongside the transparency it brought. This led to a period of significant business growth. As we began exiting the Ukrainian market, we successfully launched in Kazakhstan».
2022 saw business in Ukraine nearly grind to a halt following Russia’s full-scale invasion. They eventually began transitioning from a delivery model to SaaS. As Oleksii explained, the team spent their time until mid-to-late 2023 on enhancing the existing business and redesigning their software in preparation for the new model.
By 2024, they had closed deals with their first international clients, marking a milestone for the new business model.
The current team includes approximately 50 individuals based in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Germany, and England.
Product and audience
VanOnGo is a B2B SaaS platform for urban and regional delivery, enabling businesses of any scale to optimise complex logistics and gain full transparency across all operations.
«It’s a very common situation when the end consumer is left waiting for their delivery, with just an SMS providing the sole update on its status. The absence of real-time delivery tracking means there’s no opportunity to affect the delivery process. For the end consumer, this scenario results in poor customer experience and extra expenses. Ultimately, a portion of end consumers decide to steer clear of online ordering, choosing instead to go to retail locations.
Being a business means you’re unable to tackle this challenge independently and must, instead, use third-party solutions. You incur substantial costs for a service not tailored to your business, resulting in lost clients and diminished loyalty.
We offer an urban delivery platform that includes the following core elements:
- Vendor interface, where they can request deliveries, see their status, and communicate with the fleet.
- Fleet and delivery operations interface — designed for planning and managing deliveries, it includes automated route optimisation and comprehensive driver management.
- Delivery app — a platform for drivers to navigate routes, receive planned delivery updates, and communicate with the end consumer.
- End consumer interface — designed for real-time delivery tracking, driver communication, and flexible changes to delivery time and location (offered as a separate app, a web platform, or seamlessly integrated into the vendor’s existing application)», — explains Oleksii Denysiuk.
Platform operation explained:
- The vendor initiates a delivery by creating a request (whether manually, via import, or through an API).
- The delivery request is automatically matched with the pre-set fleet(s).
- The fleet manager then runs an automated Solver, which generates optimised routes for the fleet based on selected and available drivers.
- The driver receives the route or its updates directly in the app.
- The driver executes the defined workflow steps, logging each completed action within the interface.
- Both the consumer and the vendor receive real-time updates on the delivery status. The consumer can communicate with the driver and edit the delivery time and location.
According to the co-founder, the product now handles approximately 2,000 daily orders, has clients in Italy, Romania, Ukraine, and Mexico, and is actively expanding to other countries and regions.
Business model and marketing strategy
The primary monetisation vector for the B2B SaaS platform is payment per order.
They offer clients multiple pricing tiers.
- OnGo Fleet. Clients: vendors operating their own fleets, last-mile delivery companies. This is a cloud software solution designed for delivery management by businesses that handle their own deliveries, usually with an in-house fleet. The platform provides a delivery control instrument, an improved customer experience, and greater vendor transparency. There’s no charge for integration; instead, it’s payment per delivery, with extra fees for advanced support or custom functionalities. Pricing is approximately € 0.1 per delivery, around € 100/month for additional support, and an estimated 60% gross margin.
- OnGo Business. Clients: Vendors operating without their own fleets. There’s no charge for integration; instead, it’s payment per delivery, with extra fees for custom functionalities. Prices are about €7–10 per delivery, and the gross margin stands at approximately 10–20%.
They also propose a few other functionalities to be rolled out post-initial product market entry.
- OnGo Service offers the potential to use the platform for organising and managing a variety of services. Examples include utility maintenance and refuse disposal.
- OnGo Marketplace offers a mechanism for fleet owners to make unused vehicles available, and for other fleet owners or vendors to use this capacity on an as-needed or continuous basis.
Investments
The initial versions and iterations of the product were self-funded by the founders, though the exact amount invested remains undisclosed. The team has already secured two investment rounds: Seed and Seed Extension. «The total amount invested or raised exceeds €3 million».
Plans
«We aim to expand the client base, getting the product fully ready for scale, and reinforce our position in existing markets. Another goal is to assess emerging technologies and new product ideas for future development within the next year.
The foremost goal is to move beyond the startup stage and establish itself as a stable, growing business. Depending on which market hypotheses are validated, we’ll double down there».
From a higher-level strategic standpoint, the team seeks to be the preferred system for dynamic logistics organisation and management. Essentially, if you have a business that regularly transports items or people within a region, the OnGo system should be your go-to for organising that process», — summarised the co-founder.
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