Austria-based e-commerce startup Byrd announced that it had raised $56 million in a Series C funding round. It was led by Florida-based Cambridge Capital, Austrian Speedinvest, Elevator Ventures and Uniqa Ventures, London-based Mouro Capital, and d Others, including Greece-based VentureFriends as a previous investor.
The Company’s e-commerce solution is a virtual network that provides various fulfillment services to online retailers across Europe. According to Alexander Leichter, CEO and co-founder of Byrd, e-commerce retailers are already under immense pressure to deliver as quickly as possible and therefore must look for alternatives and scalable fulfillment services. This is where fulfillment partners and warehousing solutions come in.
“The global supply chain crisis is putting increasing pressure on margins and creating significant delivery challenges. This means retailers should look for scalable fulfillment services that cover their core markets on a global scale. When we were approached by Cambridge Capital, we decided it was the right time to combine our significant momentum from last year with their expertise in technology logistics investments to accelerate our growth plans,” said Leichter .
Byrd’s mission is to create an independent distribution network across Europe and locations in more than 10 European countries. The company will also use the funds to expand and strengthen its presence in existing markets and its local teams, while also opening up to new markets such as Poland, Sweden and Denmark during the year.
Well positioned for success in e-commerce
According to the Greek VC AdventureFriendsone of Byrd’s previous investors, the startup is in a great position to succeed in e-commerce because it offers retailers flexible warehousing and logistics infrastructure in all major European countries.
“At VentureFriends, we strongly believe in the general space that enables e-commerce. Byrd has grown rapidly over the past few years and has supported hundreds of customers across Europe. The new funding round is a testament to their success and allows them to continue growing and expanding into more countries, as we have seen with the recent launch in Spain and Italy,” said Apostolos Apostolakis, Partner and co-founder of Venture Friends, at The Recursive.
Although the company also has employees in Greece, for Apostolakis, in the long term, Byrd will also help Greek and regional retailers.
“The key connection and benefit is that we have supported a company that can help Greek and regional retailers selling in Europe improve their offering to these customers by offering faster delivery,” explains Apostolakis.
According to Cambridge Capital, the lead investor in the latest round, Byrd is one of the fastest-growing companies ever.
“We were convinced by their technology-driven approach and proprietary warehouse management software, which allows Byrd to manage a resource-light distribution network. Byrd’s broad coverage of the European market, its excellent customer dynamism and its great satisfaction with its retail and warehouse partners immediately appealed to us,” underlined Matt Smalley, Director of Cambridge Capital.
For Elevator Companiesone of the lead investors in the Series C, Byrd has immense growth potential.
“State-of-the-art logistics and fulfillment are essential to the success of online merchants, as are payment options and financing for their business transactions. We see immense potential in Byrd’s rapidly growing network and want to support each other with our contacts and financial services know-how,” Maximilian Schausberger, managing director of Elevator Ventures, told The Recursive.
The warehouse solutions provider and fulfillment partner plans to have nearly 400 employees by the end of 2022, with offices in Vienna, London, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin and Milan.
