Logistics start-up Shippit kicks off series A funding round

Internet Retailing

31st Jan 2017

Sydney-based logistics start-up Shippit is looking to raise $3 million to fund its expansion into the largely untapped B2B e-commerce market.

Shippit co-founder and co-CEO Rob Hango-Zada says Australian retailers want the same speed, transparency and reliability when moving items along their supply chain as online shoppers have when choosing a delivery method.

“There’s a lot of inefficiency in supply chains today. If you look at any fast fashion retailer, the predominant manufacturing hub is in China, but they’re not tapping into those synergies,” Hango-Zada said.

Shippit’s aim is to identify and exploit those synergies. It groups items moving from a common origin to a common destination in order to find the most efficient way to deliver them.

This allows retailers and couriers to tap into economies of scale that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

The logistics company now wants to bring its technology to the B2B space to help retailers simplify their end-to-end supply chain.

“There’s a lot of movement around the technology-enabled logistics industry. It’s a bit of an arms race and it’s about sustaining growth and keeping momentum,” Hango-Zada said.

The Series A funding round will help Shippit accelerate its B2B move, as well as grow its team internally and expand internationally in future.

“It’s not our short-term focus, but we see opportunity across the South East Asian market,” Hango-Zada said.

While Shippit already supports Australian retailers looking to ship cross-border, the start-up sees growing demand from retailers in global markets to improve deliveries.

Hango-Zada said demand will dictate when the company expands overseas, but for now, its core focus is on the Australian market.

Harvey Norman, Pet Circle and Ted’s Cameras are just a few of the retailers using Shippit today.

The Series A funding round is being run by Equity Venture Partners, whose chairman Les Szekely led Shippit’s $800,000 in seed funding over the last two years.