Rumor: On-demand delivery app Shyp is raising $50M at a $250M valuation
Shyp Inc., the on-demand shipping startup that celebrated its one-year birthday in March, is supposedly raising as much as $50 million at a valuation of $250 million. Several sources shared details about the possible funding round with TechCrunch. As for the investors involved, one source said that the funding round may be led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
To-date, San Francisco-based Shyp has raised $12.1 million in two funding rounds from 25 investors, including a $10 million Series A round last July. The Series A round was led by Shervin Pishevar and Scott Stanford’s SherpaVentures.
Shyp currently provides its on-demand shipping services in Miami, New York and San Francisco. Any new capital the company raises now will likely be used to expand its services to other cities in the U.S. According to Shyp’s website, the service is already slated to launch Los Angeles in the near future.
Shyp set out to simplify the process of shipping packages. Using the Shyp app users snap a photo of the item they want to ship and Shyp sends someone to collect the item, takes care of packaging, selects the cheapest and most reliable carrier, and makes sure the package gets delivered to its destination. Users can track the progress of their package in-app. Shyp charges a flat rate of $5, plus postage, making it one of the most cost effective ways to ship packages.
It has already been a busy year for Shyp. In January the company released an Android version of its app, making the service available to a much larger pool of users, and in March the company launched Shyp Returns, a dedicated service aimed at making it simpler to return unwanted items users bought online.
Judging by the recent flurry of activity and investment rounds, the on-demand delivery and logistics space seems to be expanding rapidly. Postmates, a service that allows users to order items from local stores and have it delivered to them, raised $35 million in February. In December grocery delivery startup, Instacart landed $210 million. Ride hailing service, Uber is experimenting with uberFRESH, a service that delivers lunch orders. In March Magic, an SMS-based on-demand delivery service, raised $12 million and DoorDash, the takeout delivery app, raised another $40 million.
Screenshot: SiliconANGLE via Shyp on Google Play
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