Today, Chicago-based e-commerce fulfillment service ShipBob said it raised US$40 million toward in a Series C round to fund the expansion of its warehousing services and digital platform, in order to compete with juggernaut rival Amazon.com’s fulfillment service.
The funding round was led by Menlo Ventures and involved contributions from existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels and Y Combinator. To date, ShipBob said it has raised a total of $62 million.
The funds are expected to be used to create a system similar to Amazon Prime, in which “customers will get all of their e-commerce orders delivered to them like Amazon Prime: same-day, next-day,” said ShipBob co-founder and CEO Dhruv Saxena in the Chicago Tribune.
Last year, the four-year-old startup raked in $17.5 million in a funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures and grew its employee count from 60 to 400. Its current network consists of locations in of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, allowing it to offer same- and next-day shipping options for merchants around these major cities.