• UAE-based last-mile startup Flyby has closed a $1 million Seed round, led by FHS Capital based in Silicon Valley, and VN2 Capital based in London. 
• Founded in 2022, Flyby provides clients with smart delivery boxes, attached to a mobile advertising board.
• The funds will be used to launch a fleet of Flyby smart delivery boxes in Dubai, scaling and further developing its technology.

Source: EIN News

Flyby, a Dubai-based smart delivery box and mobile digital out-of-home (OOH) advertising company has announced the closing of a $1 million seed round. The funds will be used to launch a fleet of Flyby smart delivery boxes in Dubai, along with scaling and further development of the technology.

With an array of embedded sensors and technologies, Flyby seeks to make the roads safer with its advanced smart delivery box. The box has the ability to independently track rider behaviour, addressing the road safety challenges of motorbike delivery riders.

The smart delivery box also creates new value for restaurants and fleet operators in the food delivery ecosystem by turning the box on the back of every delivery bike into a mobile digital ad space. The boxes are made up of three high-contrast digital outdoor LED displays for a dynamic new class of mobile digital OOH advertising.

The company has emerged out of stealth with the announcement of a $1 million seed round investment led by FHS Capital based in Silicon Valley, USA, and VN2 Capital based in London, UK. The seed round - closed at an undisclosed valuation - is being deployed to roll out a series of smart delivery boxes across Dubai with one of the region’s leading fleet providers.

Hesham Hannah-Shmouni, the Managing Partner of FHS Capital, stated: “We’re excited about Flyby ushering in an entirely new category of mobile digital OOH advertising. With the potential to disrupt multiple industries, Flyby can be a real game-changer, creating new value across the last-mile delivery ecosystem.”

Saher Khattab, Flyby’s official representative, remarks: “This investment signals that Flyby could positively disrupt a rapidly expanding sector. It’s a significant milestone on our ambitious journey, a vote of confidence to get our Flyby boxes on the streets of Dubai.”

Designed in Germany, the patented smart delivery box is connected through a cloud-based interface that allows advertisers to book ad space directly through Flyby. The highly intuitive cloud-based user interface can secure per-minute advertising, scaling from a single bike up to a potential fleet of thousands, adding location-based advertising with geo-fencing capability.

With the MENA digital out-of-home (DOOH) market expected to grow at a forecast CAGR of 17.5% to $54 billion by 2026, Flyby chose the Emirate of Dubai as its global entry point. Where conventional advertising hoardings compete with large format digital OOH displays, along with one of the region’s highest concentrations of delivery motorbikes, Dubai was the logical choice to launch the technology.

Flyby creates value within the food delivery ecosystem by realizing new efficiencies, as well as giving restaurants the opportunity for more visibility on the roads. For customers, Flyby reveals one of its biggest tricks in a post-pandemic age. This embedded UV lighting system sanitises the contents of the box in every delivery, as well as gives customers the ability to track the location of their orders precisely.

Flyby’s smart delivery box contains a series of embedded sensors, with live telemetry data including GPS position, speed, acceleration and tilt allowing the measuring and monitoring of driver behaviour. With a compliance-led approach, Flyby is working closely with industry regulators to ensure compliance with relevant safety and data standards and guidelines.

Flyby has courted interest from a number of leading advertising agencies, fleet providers and restaurant groups. You can expect to see Flyby on the streets of Dubai in Q1 2023.