In a world where more than 100 countries don’t have proper postal systems and four billion people lack clear home addresses, giving directions for a simple lunch delivery can be a nightmare.
We know this all too well in Lebanon. It’s not uncommon to get creative, telling people to turn left at Abou Rami’s mini-market before turning right at a white office block and then looking for a building with a red gate and potted plants.
Luckily, eddress simplifies your physical address by turning it into a six character code made up of three letters and three numbers. You can have multiple eddresses (work, home, etc.), and when you move, the same code can be updated to reflect the new location.
Ronny Shibley, co-founder and CEO, says that he first had the idea for eddress a year and a half ago while ordering food through a restaurant’s app. “While I was filling out my address the app crashed,” he says. “I didn’t want to go through the laborious process of typing in all the details again and so I called them to give them directions. Then it struck me, ‘why can’t I just have a six character code?’” He later expanded his idea to work for businesses as well as users.
The app’s user platform went live seven months ago, while its businesses specific platform launched just three months ago. Combined, both applications already have around 10,000 users, and 70,000 eddresses have been created so far. It includes a personal and business address directory, the option of putting contacts on the map, privacy controls (you choose who can see your eddress), and third party integration with the apps Zomato and Uber. Starting in November, users will also be able to place orders through eddress.
Eddress is free for users and requires them to register and pin addresses onto the map. Once a business that uses eddress makes a successful delivery, the address is verified. Shibley envisions “a global verified address system that is accessible on the cloud by users and businesses”.
In reality, eddress offers more than just a verified address: it connects you to the community through its Hyperlocal Services, making it your convenient link to food and beverage options, groceries, ATMs, banks, dry cleaners, the Red Cross, plumbers, electricians and other services in your neighborhood.
The app is already being used by several businesses to streamline deliveries, including local and international brands such as Burger King, Ginger & Co., Le Cid, Grab n’Go, The Malt Gallery, Flowers, delivery and transactions app Wakilni, EasyBites in Abu Dhabi, and BoxBike in Bolivia.
Businesses using the app can transform clients’ delivery addresses into easy-to-find eddresses, as well as assess delivery times, track drivers, optimize routes, engage customers and receive direct feedback online.
After a free trial period, businesses select one of three subscription packages, which start at $59 per month. There’s no limit to the number of users a business can have on their distribution platform, plus certain eddress features are free for businesses that choose to be listed on the app’s marketplace.
Before eddress, Shibley, a computer engineer, worked on several startups, including Codefish, which launched six years ago and offers IT consulting and software development. Eddress is incubated at Codefish with a dedicated team. Co-founders Karim El Khoury (COO) and Emile Harb bring their finance expertise to the table, while Kamel Semakieh works as a computer engineer for the app. Sixteen months ago it had an angel round raising $220,000, and it recently secured another $700,000. Pre-series A, the startup is already generating revenue. While eddress is still being optimized, there are plans to expand further to more countries around the world.
