John D. Boyd | Jul 13, 2011 4:31PM EDT
E-commerce giant eBay and consumer products manufacturer Newell Rubbermaid are taking ownership stakes in Shipwire, giving the shippers strong roles in the management of the growing outsourced distribution specialist.
The companies did not disclose the size of their investment, but in a joint announcement said the action “follows significant momentum in small and mid-market adoption of Shipwire.”
The investment gives the two shippers a stake in a company that gives “businesses the tools to lower their shipping costs and scale their businesses, so that they can be competitive in today's e-commerce market," they said.
They join existing investor Meakem Becker Venture Capital in holding stakes in Shipwire, which uses a network of warehouses and its specialty software to fulfill orders.
Along with the injection of money, the agreement alters the Shipwire board of directors. The former president of FedEx Ground, Ivan Hoffman, will join Shipwire’s board, along with Jean-Francois Van Kerckhove, eBay vice president and head of corporate strategy, and Amine Khechfe representing Newell Rubbermaid.
Khechfe is founder and general manager of DYMO Endicia, a shipping and mailing postage technology firm owned by Newell Rubbermaid.
They said the funding will help Shipwire expand its warehouse network into more countries and speed up software feature development.
"Shipwire built a logistics technology platform that gives any seller access to storage and shipping tools in domestic and international markets, previously only available to the largest merchants," said eBay’s Van Kerckhove.
Khechfe said DYMO Endicia and Shipwire since 2006 have already been working together some, but the new effort will help spread their postal shipping technologies “and assist brands in automating and scaling their businesses, domestically and globally."
-- Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @jboydjoc.
