US e-commerce startup Shipium raises $130 million

U.S. e-commerce startup Stackline has received $130 million from TA Associates, one of the largest funding rounds for a Seattle-area startup this year.

The surge in online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic has forced e-commerce companies to upgrade their business capabilities. This is good news for startups such as Shipium that develop e-commerce software.

The Seattle startup, which just raised $8 million to help online retailers improve technology in their fulfillment centers, is the latest software startup to ride the wave of the e-commerce boom. Other Seattle-area companies that have raised funding in the past year include Flex, Stackline, Fabric, FlavorCloud, Pipe17, Pandion and SoundCommerce.

GeekWire first reported on Shipium in 2019, and the company is led by two supply chain veterans, Jason Murray and Mac Brown. Murray worked at Amazon for nearly 20 years, serving as vice president, running the supply chain team and managing thousands of employees. Brown was also an early Amazon employee—the two co-founders started three days apart in 1999—and later joined Zulily, where he served as vice president of supply chain and fulfillment software for the Seattle online retailer.

Shipium’s mission is to help online retailers “fight back” against Amazon, which has set customer expectations for delivery times that are difficult for many companies that lack deep supply chain capabilities to meet. This puts small retailers at a disadvantage; at the same time, Amazon has grown rapidly during the pandemic, setting record revenues and profits.

Shipium’s API service works in conjunction with existing systems to help businesses make fulfillment decisions, such as deciding which shipping method is the fastest or cheapest, or which box size is optimal.

“For large companies, software that solves similar problems typically consists of monolithic software like SAP from the 90s,” Murray said. “They haven’t served the e-commerce industry because the decisions they help make don’t take into account e-commerce outcomes, like meeting customer delivery date commitments.”

The 10-person startup uses an infrastructure software-as-a-service model. Shipium has several well-known brands as customers and will process tens of millions of shipments this year.

“E-commerce companies can offer customers fast or free delivery and a competitive customer experience by applying modern software to existing assets,” Brown said in a statement. “A membership-like experience does not require a complete reconfiguration of physical operations.”

Online Shopping

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USA