grid.online brings better-paid couriers, cheaper transport, and fewer cars in cities, says Ondřej Krátký

When did Liftago start shifting from ride-hailing to logistics?
Very early on. Liftago was always about maximizing taxi utilization, and wesimply applied that same principle to a different sector. We’re once again helping transportation providers earn more by making better use of theirassets. The transition from moving people to moving goods was a natural one—it’s the same business at its core. The only difference is that we’re no longer building a consumer-facing app but a B2B infrastructure.

Did the transformation start during COVID, when taxi drivers began delivering food and parcels through Liftago?
The idea had started forming even earlier, back in 2017. Our vision was to create a transportation network that could optimize not just taxis but all vehicle types. Partly, this was a response to how tough it is to expand in the taxi market. Moving into urban logistics gave Liftago a competitive edge beyond the typical price-versus-quality narrative. So when the pandemic hit, we already had several pilot projects under our belt, our own courier app, and multiple tech integrations in place.

Sounds like you had a major advantage.
Yes, we were in a fairly good position to respond. Not to the extent that wefully recovered the loss in a few months, but it was the moment that likely saved the company. Our shareholders at Livesport supported us, and I personally went into debt to invest and show that I believed in the concept. Without that larger vision of what we could become, it would’ve been hard to react quicklyor stay motivated. But we knew exactly what we had to do.

How much did COVID accelerate the birth of grid.online?
We weren’t far enough along to fully ride the e-commerce boom at the time—but we were far enough to believe something real could come out of it. The biggest benefit was that we could finally go all-in on logistics, which would’ve remained in the background if not for the pandemic.

Logistics is dominated by giants. Where did you see your opportunity?
Infrastructure investments in logistics are massive and slow-moving. When the market starts to shift, it's difficult to add flexibility. Companies can either try to build that flexibility internally, or a B2B player can provide it externally—and that’s where we come in. We definitely don’t look down on the big players as “dinosaurs.” Anyone who can process hundreds of thousands of parcels a day and deliver them with 99% success deserves our respect. If they also have the courage to adapt and work with us, they earn double the respect.

How innovative is the logistics sector, really?
‍The core logistics infrastructure—depots, sorting lines, warehouses—was originally built for B2B. It’s a 70- to 100-year-old industry that evolved to serve companies exchanging goods. That’s why deliveries still happen from 8a.m. to 5 p.m.—those were standard business hours. Then e-commerce came along and added a completely different set of needs. But the infrastructure was so robust that we couldn’t just build something new overnight. So existing systems were repurposed, which kind of worked—but not as well as today’s economy demands. For me, that gap represents a huge opportunity.

So your vision is that one day everything—from DPD and DHL to PPL, Zásilkovna, and even the post office—runs through grid.online, connecting all transport capacities?
Until now, every logistics company had to build its own network, which meant enormous capital costs—just like how companies used to run their own internet servers. But at some point, that becomes too expensive and too complex. In logistics, it means congested streets and a shortage of drivers, since everyone’s locked into serving a single company. We’re like a logistics cloud. Businesses just plug into our API and can immediately outsource part of their capacity via grid.online—lowering their costs while improving service coverage.

So instead of connecting passengers with taxi drivers, you’re now connecting logistics companies with available drivers and vehicles?
Exactly. Typically, a transport company signs a year-long contract with a brandand puts their logo on the vehicles. But then they’re totally dependent on that brand to keep them busy—and the prices they negotiate usually include a premium because transporters need to cover the risk of running half-empty. With grid.online, companies input their delivery requirements via API and get the exact number of vehicles and drivers they need. It’s a dynamic service. They don’t pay for unused capacity and don’t have to build any infrastructure.

Is it hard to explain what you actually do? Many people might not know the difference between a logistics company and a transportation provider.
That’s true. Logistics companies build depots and warehouses; transport providers own vehicles and drivers. And some players are a mix of both. But wedon’t mind the confusion because we prefer to stay invisible. We’re not a competitor to either side. We’ve committed to never targeting end customers, never buying vehicles, and never building our own depots or locker systems. The grid.online brand never touches the recipient—we don’t do any consumer marketing. We’re just a perfectly complementary layer that solves the pain points both sides struggle with.

And what are those pain points?
For logistics companies, it’s the enormous challenge of tracking and planning capacity. grid.online helps stabilize their fleet utilization and absorb demand fluctuations. That saves them huge costs—either from unused or overpriced capacity—and lets them meet spikes in demand more efficiently. These are savings you can’t ignore.

Can individual drivers plug into the system too?
That’s actually our main focus. While we work with transport providers that have multiple vehicles and couriers, we more often partner with individual drivers. We’re heavily automating the traditional role of a transport provider. It’s a tough business with a lot of operational overhead—most of which we’ve eliminated. That way, drivers can focus on providing quality vehicles and good service.

And what about on the demand side—can small merchants use your services too?
Today, our demand mainly comes from parcel delivery services and e-commerce players. That’s our core target, and growth is currently driven by larger clients. For smaller clients, we offer a simple web tool for internal logisticsor same-day delivery. Since business development is just me and one colleague right now, we’re thinking about how to automate the product for smaller customers rather than build a large sales team, while still being a reliable partner.

How much unused transport capacity is there on the market?
‍There are tens of thousands of drivers in the gig economy—delivery, food, or ride-hailing—whose work is very on-and-off. That leaves plenty of idle time in which they can join grid.online. We buy their transport capacity during those off-peak hours. It’s similar to an electricity spot market: we buy the cheapest available resource at the time. We connect different types of drivers at different times. There’s plenty of capacity out there, but each business has wanted drivers just for them selves—leading to massive inefficiencies and a huge opportunity for optimization.

So grid.online also functions like an auction marketplace?
Yes, but only on the driver side. For clients, pricing is fixed and capacity is reserved. But on the driver side, pricing is dynamic—we auction capacity in real time based on who's online. We buy transport at spot prices, factoring in traffic and other variables. If we’re efficient, we generate positive margins. If not, we take the hit. The client gets a guaranteed price with no extra fees, and drivers earn more than on the traditional market.

Is grid.online part of a broader transformation of logistics?
I’ve been diving deep into the history of logistics—how new economies impacted things like rail, oil, and steel transportation. It’s super inspiring. Aconstantly shifting market creates big opportunities if you have the right tech at the right time. Most people don’t see these changes coming because they’re fixated on how things used to work. But I believe we’ve identified a major trend—and we’ve got it in our hands.

How complex is the tech behind all this?
After 12 years at Liftago, I had plenty of time to experiment with delivery logistics. That let us make a bunch of mistakes, from which the grid.online concept eventually emerged. I won’t go into detail about our tech stack—it’s a key part of our know-how. The closest comparison today might be Amazon Flex. But while they’re building an internal capability to dominate the market, we’re building an open service that anyone can use. That’s reflected in our tech as well.

Was it hard to convince investors?
Our case was pretty unusual because spinning off from Liftago was legally very complicated. We had to secure the investment well in advance so that grid.online could function independently the moment the spin-off became final. I funded the co-existence period myself, but we needed investors to support the next year or two. Luckily, we had quite a bit of interest and could be selective.

What were your selection criteria?
The most important thing was the references of founders in their portfolio. Our strength was that we already had many validated hypotheses and a working product with positive economics—for both drivers and transporters. Honestly, it was a pretty enjoyable fundraising process—I’ve definitely been through worse. I think we managed to combine the strengths of three successful and mutually compatible investors.

How fast is grid.online growing?
This year, we want to scale our network to handle 15,000 to 35,000 parcels perday—roughly three times more than last year. That’s our main growth metric. Still, the Czech market handles over a million parcels daily, so we’re just getting started. There are 16 of us in the office now, and we plan to keep growing—but carefully. We’re very focused on staying lean, avoiding the classic startup trajectory of rapid scaling followed by sudden cutbacks. We’re investing heavily in automation and efficiency. Just recently, a CEO from a major client visited and asked if half our team was out sick or working remotely. I told him, “Nope—this is it.” For example, instead of a whole accounting department, we have one young colleague who focuses on feeding automated inputs into the system.

Are you planning to expand internationally?
Even at Liftago, I saw grid.online as the idea that could take us abroad. Price wars and the structure of the taxi market make sustainable international expansion nearly impossible. But with grid.online, we hope to get there. First, we want to prove the model works sustainably. The Czech market is big enough for now—but our ambitions are much bigger. Many of our clients are international, and we believe we can grow with them beyond borders.

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