Shippo, the eCommerce IT platform, has raised $45 million in new funding, according to a company blog, now being valued at $495 million.
The company announces that this has doubled its valuation in just the last 12 months.
Shippo calls 2020 a “year of massive growth” for the company and says that during that time, it was able to double the total shipping spend on its platform and add three times the amount of growth compared to other companies.
The blog goes on to say that Shippo has been dealing with a “remarkably offline problem” in shipping even as most of the world’s business moves more toward eCommerce. Shipping, the blog says, has been faced with a number of steps — physically packing boxes, finding shipping providers and completing last-mile delivery, usually by people in the real world — all of which are done in an offline-first manner. The blog notes that many traditional providers are also in that position and not cut out for the complexities of eCommerce shipping.
In that, the company is looking to improve the landscape for everyone, with several updates including an out-of-the-box shipping experience to make that a default feature for companies’ customers, and a boost to international carrier coverage, along with universal connectivity.
The company also plans to keep expanding. Shippo hired 80 new employees last year and plans to hire 150 additional ones this year, the blog says. The company also opened a hub in Austin in addition to its San Francisco one.
“Our vision is to build Amazon Prime for everyone else. We want to put SMBs at a competitive advantage by setting a new bar for SMB shipping.”
Rina Hurst, chief business strategy officer at eCommerce firm Shipt, recently spoke with PYMNTS about the trends in shipping. Contactless shipping is here to stay, she said, and the merchants faring the best during the pandemic are those which have embraced in-store pickups, curbside shipping and other new forms of getting items to their buyers.
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