Shippo Hits Unicorn Status With $50 Million More In Venture Funding

Shipping platform Shippo said on Wednesday (June 2) that it has raised $50 million in new funding. The company said in a blog post that this funding round values Shippo at $1 billion.

The company announced earlier this year, on Feb. 24, that it had raised $45 million. Its valuation at that time was $495 million.

San Francisco-based Shippo’s website said its shipping software offers “the absolute best rates from top carriers.” The company said it can simplify the eCommerce process for businesses through discounted shipping labels, the tracking of shipments and the printing of return labels.

According to the blog post, the new funding round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners — in particular, partners Talia Goldberg and Jeremy Levine, who is also a member of the Shippo board.

Bessemer and its partners have seen Shippo grow over the last four years, said Laura Behrens Wu, founder and CEO of Shippo. “Recent milestones have led them to double down on the business,” she said. “Since the last round of financing, we have now officially reached 100,000 customers who are shipping with Shippo.”

Additions to the company’s leadership team include Olivier Adler as chief financial officer and Naveen Sanjeeva as senior vice president of engineering.

Wu added that “eCommerce merchants are faced with customer expectations that are moving toward faster and faster shipping for free. … In a world where we are successful, every merchant can ship like Amazon without having to become logistics experts.”

A new research report from PYMNTS showed that three-fourths of consumers plan to keep at least some of the eCommerce habits they picked up during the pandemic. The findings came as the U.S. began to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis amid a widespread vaccination campaign.

The report, Consumers and the New Retail Landscape, shows that consumers remain most excited to see their families and friends again — closely followed by traveling in the U.S., shopping in stores, dining out and getting their kids back into school.