Yahoo Finance Deliverr bags another giant round as it works to move inventory closer to customers
Though reports of global supply chain bottlenecks show some easing, they likely still won’t be back to normal until some time next year. Deliverr’s technology was developed to enable next-day, affordable e-commerce fulfillment for its merchants despite these disruptions. And investors are lining up to keep its machine going.
The San Francisco-based company announced Monday $250 million in Series E funding, boosting its valuation to $2 billion. This new valuation is more than double its previous valuation when the company raised just seven months ago, a $170 million round led by Coatue.
Deliverr, which provides fulfillment services to e-commerce merchants on marketplace platforms, like Shopify, Walmart, Amazon, eBay and Target, uses predictive analytics to anticipate demand for products based on variables, including demographics and geography, and then preposition items close to demand.
The company is seeing supply chain constraints become “much more acute,” so its approach is to have a network of over 80 warehouses, cross-docks and sort centers near places of demand to reduce the number of miles a product travels and makes it more affordable to get products faster, Harish Abbott, co-founder and CEO, said via email. That approach has resulted in Deliverr's merchants growing 90% year-over-year.
“Demand remains at elevated levels from the pandemic,” he said. “Labor pool constraints made us more creative in our partnerships and expansion strategies as we watched e-commerce emerge as the primary sales channel while brick and mortar stores saw unimpressive growth.”
Indeed, Deliverr grew its gross merchandise value “significantly” year over year and is poised to power over $2.5 billion by the end of the year. It also grew its warehouse and carrier network to provide one-day fulfillment services to the largest metropolitan areas — and the company touts that half of the U.S. population lives within 100 miles of a Deliverr network.
Meanwhile, the company also saw growth in the number and diversity of its merchant base while also doubling the size of its team and opening offices around the world.
The global e-commerce fulfillment services market is expected to be valued at $86.4 billion by the end of the year and is poised to nearly double to $168.7 billion by 2028. With consumers expecting faster and more reliable shipping methods, Deliverr is well-positioned to capitalize on those expectations and global supply chain constraints, Abbott said.
E-commerce fulfillment is certainly having a moment, with capital pouring into companies all over the world. For example, Hive, Fabric, Sendbox and ShipBlu were some of the latest to announce funding within the past few months. For Deliverr’s latest investment, new investor Tiger Global is taking the lead, joined by existing investors 8VC, Activant, GLP, Brookfield Technology Partners and Coatue.
Having raised funds earlier in the year, Abbott said the company was already “well funded,” but saw increased interest from investors and thought Tiger was “an exceptional investor and partner” and “has an incredible track record on identifying promising companies, partnering with them and ultimately building exceptional iconic enterprises,” Abbott said.
The new capital will enable the company to continue improving on its technology and product development, invest in adding more employees and expand its next-day capabilities.
“That’s ultimately what drives conversion and great customer experiences,” Abbott added. “We will also invest in building new capabilities, like returns, prep, LOT tracking, and temperature control so that Deliverr is the easiest-to-use fulfillment service out there for brands.”
John Curtius, partner at Tiger Global, said in a written statement that “Deliverr is well-positioned to lead the ecommerce fulfillment space as several market forces converge.”
"No other company, at the cutting-edge of fulfillment infrastructure and technology, will be able to solve for logistics chain disruptions, offer merchants next-day delivery, and save merchant money — all at the same time,” he added.
