Curri rolls out nationwide delivery service for construction materials industry

A little over a year after its graduation from Y Combinator's demo day, the on-demand construction materials delivery service Curri is beginning to offer its services in all 50 states.

Co-founded by Matt Lafferty and Brian Gonzalez Curri aims to solve one of the major hurdles for local construction suppliers who miss out on sales because of an inability to deliver to contractors when they need it.

The company estimates that it saves its customers roughly half of the cost of deploying an in-house fleet for delivery.

They act as a wholesaler doing all the sales but they're also acting as a logistics company as well," said Lafferty. We provide a solution for them to flex up or down and save money."

After graduating from Y Combinator in the summer of 2019, the company tested its services in the Southern California region. Now, as construction looks ready to return to a more normal schedule in the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic, the company is capitalizing on increased demand to offer its services nationwide.

Construction has stayed essential through this whole crisis," said Lafferty. Depending on how states were handling it there were different levels of what was seen as essential construction. Industry-wide there was what I would call a great pause... [But] since April we've grown week-over-week and even moreso now when things are really lifting."

The company charges its customers by mile traveled and operates with a similar business model to Uber or Lyft, says Lafferty. The drivers are all gig workers, but Lafferty says they're paid a premium to other delivery services because of the urgency of the company's deliveries. We have high-dollar items that are going out and they're typically more urgent," Lafferty said. We're able to pay our driver 25 percent to 30 percent better."

The Los Angeles-based company raised seed funding from Initialized Capital, the firm founded by Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian (which also employs former TechCrunch staffer, Kim-Mai Cutler... Hi Kim-Mai!)