Why Chazki Failed: Unit Economics | Startup Autopsy
€5M
Raised
7y
Time to collapse
// startup autopsy
Chazki
Lima-born last-mile delivery startup raised $5.5M to dominate LatAm e-commerce logistics—then shut down operations country by country as unit economics never closed.
Evaluating only Chazki’s profile at its peak — without knowing the outcome — the model ranked Unit economics as the #1 likely cause. That’s exactly how it died.
Key Events Timeline
FOUNDING
Chazki founded
DOWN ROUND
Down round or bridge financing
SHUTDOWN
Slow Death: Chazki ceases operations
Full Analysis
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Documented cause
Chazki was founded in Lima in 2016 by Diego Cabieses as an API-first last-mile delivery network targeting e-commerce merchants across Latin America. The company raised approximately $5.5M from 500 Startups and regional investors and expanded to Argentina, Mexico, and Chile. The model relied on a gig-worker courier network and SaaS routing software. The economics were structurally unworkable: Latin American e-commerce average order values were $30-40 (versus $80+ in the USA), courier density was too thin outside central Lima and Buenos Aires, and merchant willingness to pay for delivery reliability was near zero in a market where Mercado Libre and Rappi were offering subsidised delivery. Chazki shut down Argentina in 2021, scaled back Peru in 2022, and wound down fully in 2023.
Lesson
“Before building a delivery network in Latin America, calculate unit economics at $35 AOV (the LatAm median) not $70+ (NA/EU). If you cannot break even at $35 AOV with 15 deliveries per courier per day in your target city, the model requires subsidy that will not survive the funding cycle ending.”