ShipMonk, an online fulfillment and technology solutions company, has completed a $290 million growth equity round as the global e-commerce surge shows no signs of abating.
Growth investor Boston-based Summit Partners led the round, which represents a minority stake in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based startup.
As part of the deal, Summit Partners Managing Director Christopher Dean and Vice President Chelsea Jurman will join Shipmonk’s board of directors.
As consumer spending continues its rapid shift online – a trend that has only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic – small and midsize merchants face tremendous challenges keeping pace with ever-increasing consumer expectations for seamless order fulfillment, near real-time delivery and around-the-clock customer service.
ShipMonk’s inventory management software, automation technology and multichannel order fulfillment solutions are designed to help growing businesses scale more quickly and compete with larger, more established brands.
Its API integrations sync with shopping cart and marketplace platforms, such as Shopify, to automatically import orders across every sales channel and support a more efficient fulfillment.
“ShipMonk was founded to alleviate the burden of supply chain management and allow brand owners to focus on the magic of their front-end customer experience,” said ShipMonk founder and CEO Jan Bednar in a statement.
The company’s solutions, he added, “can quite literally make the difference between an item arriving on time or behind schedule, and ultimately, the difference between building brand loyalty or losing a valuable customer.”
Founded in 2014, ShipMonk will gross more than $140 million in revenues in 2020, the company said, representing growth of more than 100% compared to 2019.
The company has warehouse facilities in Fort Lauderdale, Pittston, Pennsylvania, Los Angeles and Prague, Czech Republic. It plans to open its flagship European fulfillment center in the Czech Republic in mid-2021.
Claiming 1,000 employees, Shipmonk intends to increase headcount to 1,500 over the next 12 months, with hiring predominantly for warehouse workers, its customer support team known as “happiness engineers” and developers.
It will use the latest funding to continue investment in R&D, hiring, the development of fulfillment capabilities and international expansion.
