Arrive names Oracle its “Supplier of the Year”

Even with the best ideas and most useful products or services, startups face many obstacles on their path to market.

Financing is generally thought to be the biggest challenge because it takes a lot of money to convert an idea into a viable product or service. But proper staffing and vendor partners are just as critical because no one can do it all. And if you don’t have the right people and support in place, you’re just a guy with an idea talking to the wind.

Arrive doesn’t have that issue, in part because of its core team, but also because it relies on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

“Every startup struggles in the beginning, but when you’re in an emerging industry where you’re literally building the infrastructure and part of a new way of doing things, it’s even harder,” said Neerav Shah, Arrive Chief Strategy Officer. “Oracle has done more than simply providing cloud services, they’ve extended their network and given us great insights as we help build the world’s new, autonomous delivery networks.”

That made Oracle Arrive’s 2022 Supplier of the Year.

Arrive is on the threshold of producing smart mailboxes for a worldwide delivery system designed for autonomous delivery networks (ADNs). The product launch was first conceived in 2014 when serial entrepreneur Dan O’Toole secured his first patents for a smart mailbox designed for drone delivery. The concept has evolved repeatedly over the years and is now being incorporated into ADN infrastructures currently being designed and deployed by the world’s biggest companies in the logistics and delivery business.

“I can’t tell you how many hours we’ve invested in re-engineering our smart mailbox to meet the constantly evolving technology, but I can tell you we’d not be this far along without the support of Oracle,” said Arrive CEO Dan O’Toole. “They’re not a vendor to us: they’re family.”

All cloud based services provide storage, but much like other businesses, it can take a series of cloud based electronic handshakes to make everything look seamless and Oracle has a very robust backbone.

“We may be in the business of autonomous delivery, but we’re very much a work in progress with intricate steps that have to be right along the way for all the technology to mesh,” Shah said. “Oracle has an incredible customer support team with engineering on-site to help. That’s been invaluable to us. They get a startup’s unique challenges and needs."

Sam LaCrosse, Commercial Cloud Account Executive, said Arrive has been on the cutting edge of both internal and external disruption and innovation in the two years he’s worked with the company.

“As Oracle pivots its business to pioneer the future of technology, ranging from powering the next generation of large language models and neural networks to transforming the most powerful of America’s foundational institutions, Arrive is a testament to how far Oracle has come to bridge the gap,” LaCrosse said. “We are proud to partner with them as they assist the leading ADNs and their customers make autonomous delivery a reality.”