• eCommerce + Logistics + Delivery Battle was the next in the Unicorn Battles Q4 2022 series
• A whole 11 startups competed for the winner’s title
• The jury wasn’t unanimous, but Footprint Technologies manages to win

Following the NFT & Crypto Battle, the Robots & Hardware Battle, and the HealthTech & BioTech Battle in September, Unicorn Battles 2022 Q4 resumed on October 13 with their eCommerce + Logistics + Delivery Batlle. The roster of winning startups who will cross swords with other finalists at the Unicorn Cup Finals on December 1 was amended with new participants once more.

The evening’s co-hosts were Unicorn Events’ CEO Anna Fedorova and the CPO Maria Myleiko. They announcing the Battles’ regular sponsors: Network.VC, Silicon Valley Syndicate Club, and Startup Inc., – and allowed a few moments for the judges to introduce themselves.

This time, the judges included the following representatives of prominent international VCs:

• Alexander Soroka, CEO at Network.VC
• Aldo Schenone, founder and CEO at Palgo Peru (Peru)
• Kelly Luo, founder and investor at Mans International (Canada)
• Gaurav Shah, managing partner at Arete Ventures (India)
• Jim Thomas, partner at Kirenaga Partners (the USA)
• Selçuk Ergin, managing partner at Boza Ventures (Turkey)

Three additional groups of voters determined the winners: the expert board, the regular attendees, and the corporate. The latter was represented by Amit Vaghasiya, TikTok client partner at Httpool, and Paulina Szyzdek, investment director at Robert Bosch Venture Capital.

Once all eleven participating startups were ready with their pitches, it was time to finalize the vote and announce the winners. The judges were not unanimous. Footprint Technologies won by a close margin. Two other winners were eTEU and LEGID with silver and bronze respectively. Their winning pitches went as follows: Coincidentally, the three winners were also the last three startups to pitch.

LEGID

Alex Bitskov, the co-founder and COO, began the pitch with a bit of history. He told how his friend and he nearly died in a foreign country because the doctor was afraid to administer the necessary medicine due to the language barrier and potentially high fees. That’s when he began to think about the obstacles to legal practice – both obtaining and providing. 

LEGID’s AI-powered legal marketplace solves this problem by providing in-app consultations with hte right lawyer. Among obvious factors like the lawyer’s specialization and and language, the AI also takes into account the client’s trustworthiness.

eTEU

This UK-based startup provides blockchain-based digitalization solution for bills of lading – the document of title in international shipment, a key document in international trade. Eduard Oboimov, the company’s CEO and co-founder pointed out that these documents circulate in written form through regular express post to this day. According to Mr Oboimov, one out of ten shipments get delayed due to these obstacles, and the overall global cost of inefficiencies for importers and exporters arising from paper-based documentation is USD 200B per year.

Since bills of lading have to exist in only one copy, eTEU came up with the idea of turning them into NFTs with physical-like uniqueness of the documents in the digital form. The blockchain nature, in turn, allows to trace the the path of a document.

eTEU’s ambition is to expand their technology to other documents and digitize all the international shipment document turnover. 

Footprint Technologies

This is a solution for feet measurement and size recommendation via smartphone. Dr Matthias Brendel, the company’s CEO insists that over 50% of shoes ordered online are doomed to be returned, and this accounts for 75% of all returns. Aside from the money losses, it causes losses of user hours andeven increases CO2 emissions.

WIth Footprint, shoppers can measure their feet precisely against relevant databases to pick the ultimate size and fit by taking one shot of a foot from the front and one from the back. The technology has to be implemented on the side of the online store and not installed by users as a separate app. All the user has to do is enjoy not having to return the ordered shoes. The store, meanwhile decreases the return rate and the elevant losses, and the manufacturer can use the statistic data to adjust their product.

Other esteemed participating startups included:

• EAS Project – a Finnish unified VAT and customs compliance solution provider for all eCommerce actors
• MyChoreBuddy – an American marketplace connecting clients purchasing complex equipment online with installation workers
• Pyramid Logistics Software by MetaNology – an American provider of intelligent route planning, scheduling, and optimization
• BAIA – a Finnish messaging-based transaction platform
• Uvodo – an Azerbaijani headless eCommerce platform for digital agencies.
• Weddily – an American marketplace for wedding-related businesses
• DRESOS – a UAE-based provider of an AI-powered personalized fitting dolution
• Honest & Rare – a German marketplace for local drinks

The complete recording of the eCommerce + Logistics +Delivery Battle is available here.