smart-lockers
(5)
Bob Has Been Selling South Africa Everything Since 1999. Now It Wants the Whole Transaction.
The company that began as bidorbuy - a R1, no-reserve auction site - quietly stitched a marketplace, a payment gateway, a courier network and 250 smart lockers into one login. It is chasing unicorn status the unglamorous way: one parcel at a time.
Paxel
Paxel is an Indonesian app-based logistics startup founded in 2018 that pioneered guaranteed same-day intercity delivery across Java and Bali. Using a relay network of couriers (Happiness Heroes) and smart lockers (PaxelBox), it moves parcels point-to-point within a promised time window, and has grown into a specialist in cold-chain and frozen-food delivery for SMEs, F&B businesses, and e-commerce sellers. It raised a $23M Series C in 2022 led by Astra.
TULU
TULU is a proptech company that turns underused lobby and common space in apartment and student-housing buildings into 24/7 on-demand rental hubs. Through IoT-based units and a mobile app, residents can rent or buy brand-name products - from vacuums and e-scooters to VR headsets and household consumables - without owning them. Founded out of MIT's DesignX by Yishai Lehavi and Yael Shemer, the company pairs physical smart units with an AI layer that personalizes inventory per building, and it has served more than 500,000 residents across dozens of cities in North America and Europe.
Heartwork
Heartwork is a New York-based commercial furniture company that designs and manufactures steel storage solutions for the modern workplace. Founded in 2012 by Karen John, the company builds modular cabinets, credenzas, desks, and cloud-connected smart lockers from heavy-duty American steel, all GREENGUARD Gold certified and made to order in the USA. Heartwork turns the overlooked, drab world of office storage into design-forward, customizable furniture that helps companies express their culture while minimizing environmental impact.
Karen John
Karen John is the founder and CEO of Heartwork, a New York furniture company she launched in 2012 to drag the workplace out of its sea of gray, black, and beige. Trained as an industrial designer in Milan and an engineer at Stanford, with an INSEAD MBA and a former VP of Merchandising stint at Design Within Reach, she rebuilt the most boring category in office design - storage and lockers - into something people actually want to look at. Heartwork builds steel furniture and smart lockers domestically, leans on color as a cultural tool, and has raised a Series A backing John's bet that beauty and durability belong in the same room.