Lilo: This Kerala startup eyeing to disrupt gig dominance in food delivery | Business

Kochi: A startup in Kerala is eyeing to disrupt the gig delivery ecosystem with a hyper-local and holistic approach. Live Local (Lilo), launched a couple of months ago by a group of seasoned professionals, has already started operations in Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha.

Lilo has started with its food delivery platform, but its plans include much more. At the next step, it is planning to deliver fish, vegetables, groceries and meat. Then the ultimate aim is to convert the Lilo platform into a one-stop solution providing all tools for the digital transformation of the businesses at the lowest strata of the local economies.

Lilo has been co-founded by three friends — Joy Sebastian, Sajith Muhammed and Koshy Cherian, who come with enough entrepreneurial experience. Sebastian was in the news in 2021 as his company Techgentsia Software Technologies received a Rs 1 crore award by winning the Video Conferencing Innovation Challenge organised by the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT. 

Lilo has a hyperlocal approach to its delivery mechanism. What makes it different, according to the co-founders, is that the platform charges only 15 per cent of the bill as service charges whereas other prominent players charge up to 40 per cent. 

“Ours is not another gig platform. We have a zone-wise approach and in every zone, we engage local entrepreneurs to onboard both merchants and delivery personnel. We also pay a fixed amount to the delivery personnel. We look upon it as a highly scaleable project,” Sebastian, CEO, Lilo, told Onmanorama.

In Thiruvananthapuram, the company has already onboarded 100 merchants and in Alappuzha 40. “In a month or two, we are aiming to expand to the rest of Kerala and then beyond the state,” Sebastian said. For fish products, the startup has reached an agreement with the state fisheries department, and talks are on with Meat Products of India, a public sector undertaking.

Lilo was developed from a project originally made for a bank in Vietnam in 2018. The bank wanted a platform which would make easier the digital transformation of the street vendors associated with it. “We chose to replicate the project here as the Vietnam and Kerala markets are similar,” Sebastian said.

Lilo’s plans include launching a data-driven lending platform for small merchants, including Kudumbashree units. The platform will help small merchants complete their digital transformation with all the required tools, including the option for GST filing.
(Startup Saturday is Onmanorama’s weekend series featuring promising startups from Kerala. Find the previous stories here)