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Easyship, a Hong Kong-based startup that aims to simplify international e-commerce shipments as easily as payments, has closed a $ 4 million Series A.
The company was founded in 2015 by the former duo Lazada Tommaso Tamburnotti and Augustin Ceyrac, as well as by the former banker Paul Lugagne Delpon. From their time with Lazada, the Internet at the time Rocket Alibaba, Tamburnotti and Ceyrac, an e-commerce site in South East Asia, realized that there was no "plug-in" solution for sending in the same way as Stripe and still others allow online payment.
In the case of Lazada, it was crucial. The company was trying to allow cross-border trade in Southeast Asia and, in this context, to look for retailers in more mature markets, such as China. But if sending products to Indonesia – the largest country in Southeast Asia with more than 250 million inhabitants – was fraught with difficulties, retailers and consumers would be deterred from doing so. use this service.
That's how Easyship was born. Today, the startup works with more than 250 services of more than 50 couriers, but also with groups like Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Etsy, Magento and more. Its team of more than 50 people is located in offices in New York, Singapore, the Netherlands, Australia and Hong Kong.
Its service adds shipping options to e-commerce pages so that retailers can easily offer shipments abroad and customers can receive products in any market. They simply enter a line of code, which then offers customers international shipping options when ordering. This not only simplifies shipping routes, but Easyship says it can help reduce shipping costs by up to 60%. Its 40,000 SMEs saw their overall sales increase by 40% on average.
"We saw that there was an opportunity when we could not find a solution that was a gateway for
"For example, it's easy for sellers to find payment gateways that can be activated in minutes to be able to accept all major forms of payment." But he did not exist. equivalent logistics tool, where you could simply mobilize for global sales.
"At the time, small business owners simply had the choice of using Fortune 500 corporate solutions or integrating with multiple players to achieve a truly global solution," he added. .
The founders of Easyship (from left to right) Paul Lugagne Delpon, Tommaso Tamburnotti and Augustin Ceyrac
Tamburnotti told TechCrunch that the new funds would go towards developing the company's technology – which will help find cost-effective shipping routes -, adding new partners in shipping and logistics and increasing the number customers, particularly in the United States.
The sources of the tour are interesting in themselves. Maximilian Bittner, founder of Lazada and its long-time CEO, led the transaction alongside Richard Lepeu, former CEO of luxury company Richemont and board member of the Yoox Net-A-Porter group. Existing investor Lamivoie Capital Partners and Rubicon Venture Capital, One Way Ventures, Kima Ventures and Picus Capital also joined the series. 500 Startups is another investor in the sector.
Easyship's solution is so logical that it seems almost obvious, but it's a company that was created because it's located outside of the United States and Silicon Valley. US e-commerce companies have become aware of opportunities abroad, but they tend to focus on obvious and huge markets like China. Logistics in other parts of the world is complex (it is extremely fragmented) and is probably not worth the initial investment unless investing in a patient.
But for the founders of Easyship, the question of the fragmentation of logistics in Asia has become such a crucial issue that they have left their full-time jobs – with the blessing of their CEO, Bittner – to tackle the problem . The company is taking ambitious steps in the United States, having opened an office in New York this year, and it will be a company to watch. The company has already made offers to buy, but it wants to remain independent and increase its share of the US market by allowing retailers, especially smaller ones, to increase their sales worldwide.
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