The "Stripe for shipping" that actually makes sense as a comparison. Shippo gives any e-commerce business access to discounted UPS, USPS, FedEx, and DHL rates through a single API — no carrier contracts, no volume minimums. Laura Behrens Wu built it because she couldn't figure out shipping for her own handbag business. With 100,000+ merchants on the platform, Shippo proved that the most boring part of e-commerce — printing shipping labels — is also one of the most valuable to simplify.
Founded
2013
HQ
San Francisco, CA
Total Raised
$330M
Founder
Laura Behrens Wu, Simon Kreuz
Status
Private — valued at approximately $1 billion
Website
www.goshippo.comTHE ORIGIN STORY
Laura Behrens Wu was running a small e-commerce business selling handbags and was frustrated by the complexity of shipping: comparing rates across carriers, printing labels, tracking packages, handling returns. Each carrier had its own portal, its own pricing, its own API.
In 2013, she and Simon Kreuz went through Y Combinator with the vision of building a single API that would handle all shipping logistics for e-commerce merchants. The pitch: "Stripe for shipping." It worked.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
Shipping API and platform for e-commerce businesses. Shippo connects merchants to 40+ shipping carriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL) through a single API, giving them access to discounted rates without individual carrier contracts.
Revenue comes from a per-label transaction fee and monthly subscription plans. The model: become the Stripe of shipping — one integration, every carrier, best rates.
THE PRODUCTS
Shippo API (multi-carrier shipping integration), Shippo Dashboard (web-based label creation and tracking), Rate Comparison (real-time rates across 40+ carriers), Tracking (unified package tracking), Returns Management, and Address Validation. The API handles everything from rate shopping to label generation to customs forms for international shipments.
HOW THEY GREW
Moving upstream from SMB to mid-market and enterprise. Early Shippo customers were Etsy sellers and small Shopify stores.
The growth strategy is capturing larger merchants who ship thousands of packages daily and need multi-carrier optimization. International shipping expansion and a free tier that converts to paid as merchants scale drive volume.
Partnerships with Shopify, BigCommerce, and other e-commerce platforms embed Shippo into merchants' existing workflows.
THE HARD PART
Carrier relationships and margins. Shippo negotiates discounted rates from carriers and passes most of the savings to merchants — but the margins are thin.
UPS and FedEx have their own APIs and platforms, making Shippo partially dependent on competitors' willingness to participate. The shipping industry is also cyclical — volumes surge during holidays and drop in Q1, creating uneven revenue.
Competition from ShipStation, EasyPost, and Pirate Ship keeps pricing pressure constant.
MONEY TRAIL
Seed
2014 · Led by Y Combinator, SoftTech VC
$2M raised
Series C
2018 · Led by Bessemer Venture Partners, USV
$30M raised
Series E
2021 · Led by D1 Capital Partners, Bessemer
$50M raised
WHO BACKED THEM
Bessemer Venture Partners, D1 Capital Partners, Initialized Capital, USV, and Y Combinator backed Shippo.
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