Cubyn raises €12M Series B to let e-merchants outsource fulfilment

Cubyn, the Paris-based logistics startup that lets e-merchants outsource fulfillment and delivery logistics, has raised €12 million in new funding. The round is led by DN Capital, with participation from Partech Ventures, 360 Capital Partners, BNP Paribas Développement and the French investment bank BPI France.

The injection of capital is timed with the launch of “Cubyn Fulfillment,” as the company moves beyond pickup and delivery only. The new service is described as a fully integrated “first mile” solution that covers the entire fulfillment process, including keeping stock in Cubyn’s warehouses. It claims to be offered at a 30% lower price point than competitors.

“We want to make affordable world-class logistics accessible to every single e-merchant, whatever their size,” Cubyn co-founder and CEO Adrien Fernandez Baca tells TechCrunch. “Our typical customer is an e-merchant who sells across sales channels (marketplaces their own website). Size can go from 500 to 50,000 orders shipped per month.”

Launched in 2015, Cubyn says that in four years it has made more than 2 million shipments. It also reckons that because its tech is “built from the ground up,” the startup is well positioned to tackle fulfillment more efficiently than legacy players.

“Most direct competitors are the traditional third-party logistics players who missed the e-commerce revolution and lack technology intelligence,” says Baca. “We are 30% cheaper, with simpler multi-channel integrations and higher delivery quality. Less direct competitors are the fulfillment offer of marketplaces. They do offer a good logistics experience at a good price, but only for orders going through their marketplace.”

This, he argues, means there is a big gap in the market for a solution geared at multi-channel e-merchants. “We are marketplace agnostic and offer a seamless and high-quality multi-channel logistics,” adds the Cubyn CEO.

Specifically, the way the new Cubyn Fulfillment product works is as follows: An e-merchant signs up to Cubyn and plugs in their various sales channels, such as Amazon, Rakuten, eBay, Shopify etc. They then send Cubyn an appropriate amount of inventory to fulfill future orders, which is stored temporarily in a Cubyn warehouse. When an order is placed, Cubyn automatically packs the order and ships via the most suitable carrier to optimise for transit time and cost.

“Our customers pay based on the number of parcels they ship,” explains Baca. “Logistics is a game of volume and thanks to technology we can manage volumes that couldn’t be managed by historical players. This allow us to offer… cheaper prices and still have great margins.”