Ink, ingenuity and AI: How a Rain-Soaked ‘Aha!’ Is Disrupting Global Shipping

Picture a rainy British afternoon: droplets drum on the roof of Hugh Craigie Halkett’s car as he sits in a Tesco car park, questioning why—here in the era of instant messaging—he’s driven miles just to buy sticky labels for two letters. That “surely there’s a better way” moment sparked Stamp Free, a handwritten-code, AI-validated shipping platform now wooing postal giants from Royal Mail to DHL. In this interview, Hugh shares the leap from downpour epiphany to patent-protected SaaS, explains how scribbles can save couriers hundreds of millions, and reveals the fundraising grit that turned a cold email into Cambridge Angels’ backing.

Can you tell us a bit about your background and the origins of Stamp Free?

As a serial entrepreneur, I had been working in the alternative investment and technology sectors for 25 to 30 years but up until Stamp Free had no knowledge of the postal sector.

The concept behind Stamp Free came about on a rainy day when I had to drive several miles to buy stamps for a couple of letters. I got to the car park at my nearest Tesco and sat with the rain drumming down on the car roof, struck by the sheer absurdity of having to drive miles to buy sticky labels to send a couple of letters when I could ping a text or a WhatsApp message in a split second. The whole thing seemed all very 19th century. I was convinced there must be a method for sending letters and parcels just by using your phone.

What problem is Stamp Free solving and what makes your approach unique?

From that Tesco car park came the idea of Stamp Free’s patented AI shipping solution. A handwritten code on a parcel or letter which is AI validated by taking a photo of it, before sending the item in the normal way. The solution to be accessed by postal app and more recently WhatsApp and other social media channels via our AppFree product. AppFree means people can send parcels and letters using the familiar social media channel they use every day instead of having to download and use an unfamiliar postal app.

The core benefits of our technology are convenience to the sending customer and operational savings for the post or courier. The customer doesn’t need to print off a parcel label/stamp or go out to queue and purchase one. The post can remove parcel labels from their network and capture market share through the customer convenient element of our technology.

There are literally 100s of use cases of our technology that provide different specific benefits to postal companies. One operational savings example: Evri has 10,000 label printers at 10,000 retail outlets across the UK. Each of those label printers cost £10,000 to install and maintain. That’s £100m of spend. Our patented AI label free technology removes the need for those printers as customers can drop AI validated handwritten codes items at these retail outlets without the need for a label. We will run a trial with Evri later this year showing how we can save them £100m.

The handwritten code is AI scanned quickly and accurately as a barcode in under 1/3 of a second, with all the information associated with a barcode associated with the handwritten code. Our handwritten code is effectively a handwritten barcode in a practical sense.

Where do you see the biggest opportunities for Stamp Free the next few years?

As an AI B2B SaaS company, we are now integrated with Royal Mail here in the UK, live with Kazakhstan Post and launching shortly with Parcel2Go here in the UK. We are running pilots with DPD Germany, DHL, PostNL, Thailand Post and other postal companies and national couriers around the world. Our technology is relevant to everyone with a smartphone and the need to send a parcel or letter. With a total acquirable market of £32bn this is a genuine global opportunity.

What’s your funding been to date and what fundraising lessons have you learned that might help other founders?

We have raised £4m to date from R42 (led by Dr. Ronjon Nag, a Cambridge Angel), Syndicate Room, Rockspring Nominees, Crowdcube, Republic/Seedrs, Scottish Enterprise (circa £500,000 of grant and smart grant funding) and tech angels from across the world.

Crowdfunding has really worked for us as our technology resonates with the crowd and indeed all investors as everyone needs to send parcels and letters. If your product/service resonates with crowdfunding investors use that. The actual investment is through a single nominee company, so your cap table doesn’t get out of control.

Be persistent, Cambridge Angels made a number of new investments in 2021, but only one new investment to a company who had effectively “cold-called” them – Stamp Free.

Work with investors who can provide real value to your company beyond just cash. R42 as a Silicon Valley VC, are one example of this. They have led every Stamp Free funding round to date including our current one. They have introduced investors from all over the world and worked with us using Dr. Ronjon Nag’s vast AI expertise relating to handwriting recognition software, to hone our products and get them market ready in the early days.

How has having Cambridge Angels in your investor group assisted you?

I cold-emailed Emmi Nicholl, Cambridge Angels’ MD in 2021 which led to six Cambridge Angels investing in Stamp Free as part of our first investment round. Subsequent investors like seeing Cambridge Angels on our cap table.

The biggest advantage for us has been finding Dr. Ronjon Nag who is a Cambridge Angel. Having Ronjon’s R42 VC fund lead our investment rounds and being able to work with Ronjon has been a game changer for Stamp Free.

Stamp Free is currently raising £1-2m with limited capacity to take us to breakeven in 2026. Contact Hugh Craigie Halkett at hugh.ch@stampfree.ai for further information.