Fulfillment technology platform Flowspace has announced a $31 million Series B funding round led by BuildGroup. The company now has raised a total of $46 million.
This round also included past investors Canvas Ventures, Industrious Ventures, Moment Ventures, 1984 Ventures, eGateway Capital and Y Combinator.
Flowspace was founded in 2017 with a mission to enable businesses to store and deliver their products while leveraging the nationwide network of fulfillment centers partnered with the company. Flowspace’s platform is designed to give businesses the tools to scale quickly with access to warehouses with specialized capabilities to handle the storage and fulfillment of their products. The warehouses utilize this platform as well, giving both entities real-time visibility of available space and order fulfillment.
In an interview with FreightWaves, Ben Eachus, the co-founder and CEO of Flowspace who managed e-commerce growth while at the Honest Company, explained his frustrations with fulfillment and warehousing capabilities.
“It is very hard to find warehouse space quickly. There is no website or list to find the warehouse to fit your needs,” Eachus said. “Our platform creates an omnichannel for both businesses and warehouses so they have the opportunity to grow with each other.”
As retail moves online, it requires a flexible supply chain to maintain delivery expectations. To offer two-day delivery, a business would need three fulfillment centers. To reach a majority of the country with one-day shipping, that business would need 11 fulfillment centers.
Eachus was concerned that the difficulties of e-commerce supply chain management would specifically hurt small businesses looking to enter the market. Flowspace enables them with a platform that handles all aspects of fulfillment, giving owners time to focus on the products they are passionate about.
“Small business owners create products without considering how costly shipping can become as you scale,” Eachus explained. “They should not need deep industry experience to grow their brands.”
Many inexperienced business owners go to one channel to manage their fulfillment. Flowspace gives them the opportunity to leverage all channels, including those of industry leaders like Amazon, Walmart and Shopify. Along with specialized warehouses for food grade and pharmaceutical grade products, the platform gives business owners every tool they need to grow.
“Our goal is to empower brands and make it easy for them to scale. As these brands scale, the warehouses experience growth as well,” said Eachus. “Nothing makes me happier than that.”