• Australian logistics software platform Shippit raised $30 million in its latest funding round.
• The company matches retailers with the best carrier – say Australia Post or Couriers Please – for their e-commerce operations.
• Shippit plans to use the funds to grow its team of engineers in Australia and continue expanding in South East Asia.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

The recent turn to online shopping has proved a boon for Australian e-commerce and logistics platform Shippit.

The company simplifies the shipping process for retailers by matching them with the best carrier – whether that’s Australia Post, DHL or Couriers Please. All up, there are nearly 50 carriers on its platform.

“We’ve got a pretty smart piece of algorithm that takes data from the big shopping cart systems like Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, et cetera,” Co-founder William On told Business Insider Australia. “We take that data and we have a matchmaking service that chooses the best carrier. The best carrier may not always be about price, we take in some additional parameters that allow retailers to not have to think about which carrier they need to choose for each shipment.”

Shippit’s algorithm is designed to do three things for retailers. The first is to slash their shipping costs – up to 20% in some cases – because they are using more than one carrier. The second is efficiency, as it provides one workflow, regardless of the carrier you use. The third is improving customer satisfaction by sending SMS and email notifications with tracking data.

The company was co-founded On and Rob Hango-Zada, who met at the first day of uni at the University of New South Wales. So far it has amassed around 3000 customers on its platform, ranging from small businesses to major retailers such as Sephora, Big W, Target and Harvey Norman.

Shippit mainly serves the online retail sector, an industry On says had been growing between 15-20% year on year in Australia prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the pandemic hit, he said it jumped to a growth rate between 30-40%.

“We’ve been able to jump on those tailwinds and that’s been very fortunate for us at Shippit,” he said.

The company launched in Singapore and Malaysia in April, a market that On says is booming – growing at a rate of 40% year-on-year.

“We were pulled into that market as Sephora and Cotton On saw our products work really well in Australia. And they said, we want you to replicate that same technology in Singapore and Malaysia,” On explained. “It’s really good validation for our product in other markets.”

As an added boost to its business, Shippit managed to raise AU$30 million in a Series B round led by US tech investment firm Tiger Global. It comes on the back of strong performance over the past few years, and adds to the $11 million it has raised since 2017.

“Pre-COVID we were growing at about 100% year on year,” On said. “When COVID hit, our business exploded and we grew at a rate of 200% – or we tripled our business in the year leading up to June 30 this year.”

The company has a lot planned for the funds raised. It currently has around 150 employees – 50 of which were hired in the last six months – and sees more growth happening across its team.

“We feel as though there’s still ample opportunity for us to support and help Australian retailers. So that’s going to be a big part of the investment where we will improve our product and technology teams by looking at hiring close to 50 engineers in the next 12 months,” On said.

Another slice of the capital raised will go toward its expansion in South East Asia. “We’ve got six people on the ground there now,” he said. “Our customer base is growing at a rate of 50% month on month, which is amazing. And we’re really starting to turn the dial and go to market, specifically Singapore and Malaysia.”

When asked whether Shippit plans to expand further afield such as Europe or North America, On hinted at the potential for it: “We’d never say no to that,” he said. And as businesses have been switching some of their stores into distribution centres to create faster checkout options for customers, Shippit is ready offer its support.

“The way we see it is, e-commerce is here to stay,” On said.

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