ShipBob has raised $68 million in Series D funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, planning to expand its network of fulfilment centres with twelve more facilities to open by 2021 all over the world.
Especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, ShipBob has seen a tremendous acceleration in new customers needing their solution. The new capital will enhance the company’s capabilities to bring world-class fulfilment to more customers, hire across teams, fuel growth, expand its software platform, scale its global fulfilment network, and invest more in providing a first-class merchant experience.
Additionally, to support the influx in demand, ShipBob has opened six new fulfilment centres since April, including two international locations. The company has also hired hundreds of new fulfilment associates over the last few months and will hire hundreds more leading up to the holiday peak season, in addition to creating new jobs across all its teams.
Since it powers the entire fulfilment technology stack, from its merchant-facing software to its warehouse management system, which is used within all ten of its fulfilment centres across the United States, Canada, and Europe, the company can stand up new facilities in weeks instead of multiple quarters.
Furthermore, bringing in additional investment from SoftBank will allow ShipBob to expand its fulfilment centre footprint across the United States and the rest of the world even faster. The company expects to open two more US facilities in Q4 2020 and another ten facilities across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia in 2021.
Ervin Tu, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, commented: “Logistics is an enormous industry that has seen rapid growth alongside ecommerce adoption. ShipBob is leveraging data and innovative technology and operations to grow its business and drive significant increases in revenue and profits. The company is on track to be the market-leading solution for SMBs and larger merchants around the world.”
In future, ShipBob will also continue to build out its platform that already integrates with all leading ecommerce platforms and marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, and Squarespace. This enables nearly all emerging brands to provide fast shipping to their customers without having to handle fulfilment themselves.
More partners and integrations like returns management, inventory management, and financing solutions can be seen in its apps marketplace to provide brands with a one-stop shop to manage their business, and will continue to expand.
