Gently Launches Last-Mile Nano-Fulfillment in Los Angeles

They don’t look like much more than a couple of containers, stacked side by side and painted black, except for the photovoltaic array on the roof.

Several of them will be popping up in Los Angeles, where Gently is scaling up its first last-mile delivery system, which relies on what the startup calls nano-fulfillment centers.

Anything smaller and you’d have to call these mobile units mailboxes, except this is an exceptionally smart mailbox connected to a network that uses artificial intelligence to generate predictive analytic data to place goods closer to the customer and reduce delivery times.

The company made its first delivery in April and is building out its Los Angeles operations, according to a report in SupplyChainDive.

The predictive analytics of Gently’s system leverages data from retail partners, something the company calls “consumer purchase behavior” (stuff you’ve bought) and third parties to predict demand spikes and supply shortages, according to the company’s press release.

The duplex container design of the nano-fulfillment centers is central to the company’s strategy: the units are designed to move around. The company wants “to keep it modular and agile because consumer behavior and demand changes so quickly,” Elian Pres-Gurwits, Gently’s co-founder, told SupplyChainDive.

The company launched with four delivery drivers this month and will expand to 10 drivers by the end of the year. Gently’s units are owned and operated by its drivers.

“This enables last-mile delivery drivers to leverage appreciating assets, such as their property, instead of depreciating assets, and gives them an opportunity to generate income from the supply chain, not just from last-mile delivery,” the company’s release said.

Gently is aiming to penetrate other US markets. The bulk of its shippers are mid-sized, direct-to-consumer brands like bamboo-paper products company Cloud Paper, which is using Gently to deliver its products to the Los Angeles market.

Gently has one nano-fulfillment center operating in West Los Angeles, as well as a fixed distribution center, and is in the process of introducing three more mobile units. The units are a cost-efficient delivery system in a market where industrial asking rents have been skyrocketing.

In the Greater Los Angeles region, industrial asking lease rates have increased for eleven consecutive quarters, reaching a record high of $1.69 per SF in Q1 2023, according to CBRE’s market report.