1. 2021 has been a very successful year for Parcel Perform. What was the most memorable? 

Arne: What stood out to me in 2021 was our team’s growth which greatly surpassed both Dana’s and my expectations. We grew by more than 150%, from 50 to 130 employees across Singapore, Europe, and Vietnam in just under a year. I’m proud that 16 nationalities and 18 spoken languages represent our efforts to build a truly global team. In addition, we stepped up our efforts to create a great company culture to support this growth surge. For example, we implemented a series of in-person and remote internal events such as cultural workshops, festive celebrations, and networking sessions across our three offices. 

Dana: Absolutely. 2021 was an excellent year for us. We've embarked on a new growth phase at Parcel Perform by strengthening our core business and technology teams. As a testament to our efforts, I'm now based in Berlin, Germany, to oversee our growing presence across Europe and the United States. Our goal for 2022 is to open multiple new offices and continue to grow our team, with the United States being one of our key expansion markets. 

2. You also had a significant financial push with the Series A funding round in August 2021. Could you share some insights? 

Arne: We’ve built a global enterprise SaaS solution that is scalable to the needs of retail brands, marketplaces and carriers. Our continued profitability and Series A funding have proven our business has the right market fit.

We’re honored for the support from our investors at Cambridge Capital and Softbank Ventures Asia. Their investment will drive our global expansion and technology innovation to improve our customers’ delivery experience. In addition, our partnership with Cambridge Capital shows we’ve captured a valuable logistics proposition, which will significantly help our US expansion.

Dana: I also want to give a special thank you to our previous investors, in particular Wavemaker Partners. Thanks for being such great partners, our success is your success, and we won’t be where we are today without you!

3. Team growth has also materialised in product expansion in 2021. What are your thoughts on this?

Dana: We anticipated increased demand for more machine learning and AI solutions by merchants to leverage their post-purchase experience as a means of consumer engagement and retention in 2021. In response, we grew our technology team and have onboarded even more data scientists and machine learning experts, giving us the flexibility to add new and exciting features and the capability to continue to improve our existing ones. 

Arne: Our products leverage the data advantage that we have. Our machine-learning engine analyzes historical data from millions of past shipments to predict the date of delivery with high accuracy. Customers can also receive accurate and actionable tracking updates with complete visibility over their parcels, no matter where in the world. 

In 2021, we added loads of new features and consistently upgraded our existing ones. One example is our vastly expanded notification feature, where we are now able to drive highly data focussed approaches to recommend not only the best notification triggers, but also their  timing and the content of the notifications. We have stayed true to our approach to being an open system - to allow clients to send notifications via their existing CRM systems. Customers specifically loved our integration with Klaviyo.

4. Let’s move on to customer success. Dana, could you share more about your experiences in 2021? What was it like working with leading brands and marketplaces?

Dana: The beauty of our service is that we’re working across many industries, helping retailers, e-commerce marketplaces, and carriers digitalize their logistics operations. For example, we’ve helped brands such as Nespresso expand and rollout into South America; our ongoing collaboration with marketplaces such as Idealo, Wayfair, and Zalando ensures that their operational and customer engagement capabilities are always at optimal levels. We’re also working with exciting DTC brands such as Waterdrop, Just Spices, AirUp and Emma to develop and scale their e-commerce operations, such as creating personalized parcel tracking pages for their consumers. 

We’re doing more than just helping them digitalize their logistics operations or providing accurate parcel delivery predictions. We’re growing together on their journeys by integrating our data science and machine learning expertise into other business units, such as marketing, IT support, and customer service. 

5. From your point of view, what makes Parcel Perform unique?

Arne: Our uniqueness stems from our team’s expertise in data science, logistics and commitment to innovation. Our products are built for our customers, and they are customizable to their logistics operations and unique data requirements. We go to great lengths to develop a proof-of-concept model with them by analyzing their data and providing recommendations on enhancing their logistics operations as the first steps towards delivering a positive post-checkout experience for their consumers.

Dana: We believe we have to put our customers first. This is characterized by the quality and speed of our onboarding process, which compliments our data-first approach. I want to take this opportunity to highlight the unique value that we are creating for our customers as their preferred partners. We are very grateful for their trust and support. Here are what some of our customers are saying about us.

6. Dana, looking back at 2021, what are you most grateful for? 

Dana: We’re grateful for the continued support from investors, colleagues from all over the world and, of course, our fast-growing customers. Both Arne and I are committed to working together with every one of you in the new year.

We're also thankful for the market recognition. For example, we were listed in Forbes as part of its inaugural Asia 100 to Watch list. Our Series A funding announcement was also covered by global media publications such as CNBC and Techcrunch and warmly received by our customers and investors. Lastly, I was honored at the Digital Female Leaders Award 2021 as a leading innovator for the global logistics industry. These accolades validate our excellent work, and we are ready for the challenges that 2022 brings.

7. Which brings us to the next and final question, what’s next for Parcel Perform in 2022?

Arne: You can expect a lot more business milestones from Parcel Perform in 2022. These are exciting times ahead for everyone. 

We plan to open multiple new offices and expand to new markets, with the United States being one of our key destinations. In addition, Dana and I will continue to accelerate our plans to grow with key hirings in our product, sales and tech teams over the next 12 months. We are committed to our target of significantly growing our team across our key markets.

Our customers can also expect new and exciting product launches in machine learning and artificial intelligence innovations to better serve and scale their e-commerce and logistics needs. The possibilities for our solutions are massive; we are seeing how it improves service efficiency and reduces costs related to the post-purchase experience. 

We’re also embarking on company-wide rebranding during the first quarter of 2022.