Toronto-based fulfillment tech startup Shipfusion has secured $51.2 million CAD ($40 million USD) in a growth equity investment from Kayne Partners. As part of this financing, Leon Chen of Kayne Partners will join Shipfusion’s board of directors.
A spokesperson for Shipfusion told BetaKit that the startup was bootstrapped and grew from two early seed rounds from friends and family, raising less than $500,000 USD. With the recent financing, this brings Shipfusion’s total funding to around $40.5 million USD.
Launched in 2014 by co-founders Brandon Luft and Michael Stock, Shipfusion provides fulfillment infrastructure to online retail companies that are looking to expand their businesses. Its software-based platform can update and sync inventory data across multiple channels in real-time.
Shipfusion claims that it made the choice early in its venture to not contract with third-party warehouses, instead focusing on a handful of strategic locations that are fully operated by Shipfusion employees. The startup decided to anchor its flagship warehouse in Chicago. Shipfusion claimed that through its fulfillment centres and carrier network it cuts down transit times by a full day.
Since the launch of its Chicago warehouse, Shipfusion has also been operating locations in Los Angeles and Toronto, as well as in Las Vegas where it opened a 250,000 square foot facility earlier in April. Its newest warehouse in Las Vegas has the capacity to ship over 75,000 e-commerce orders daily and includes 50,000 square feet of temperature-controlled storage for sensitive cargo. Three new warehouses are set to open in New Jersey, Atlanta, and Dallas.
Although Shipfusion’s customer base comes from a range of verticals, the startup has invested heavily into the health and supplement, as well as the food-related e-commerce market, by providing temperature-controlled storage, special handling certifications, end-to-end lot tracking, and FDA-registered facilities.
In its first few years, Shipfusion remained bootstrapped, focusing on building its core product.
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Shipfusion plots its United States (US) expansion as a number of Canadian and US fulfillment startups have been establishing a physical presence in the country. Earlier this year, Bolt Logistics partnered with Ikea Canada to deploy 30 electric vehicles across the country. At that time, the company expressed plans to expand into the US in the coming months.
Another major player in the space is Chicago-based ShipBob, which reached unicorn status in October, raising $330.5 million in funding.
Featured image from Shipfusion’s Facebook page