FlavorCloud, a leading global e-commerce shipping and logistics company, today announced a $6.3 million Series A investment round led by Mucker Capital to spur continued scaling and growth of its best-of-breed cross-border transaction platform. Partner Omar Hamoui will be joining the board of FlavorCloud as a part of this deal. Additional funding included investments from Rise of The Rest and Willow Group.
Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) e-commerce businesses represent a $4.5 trillion dollar market, yet many companies struggle with expanding their reach globally due to complex and challenging customs regulations. FlavorCloud helps make every brand a global brand, and to-date has helped hundreds by automating and streamlining what has traditionally been an expensive, fragmented, and error-prone process.
“We live in a global marketplace, however, it is consistently hard for DTC e-commerce brands to offer their products to an international audience,” said founder and CEO Rathna Sharad. “FlavorCloud makes it simple to ship to anyone, anywhere in the world, with a seamless consumer experience, which has an incredible impact on enabling these DTC brands to expand globally. We’ve created a platform that is truly a game-changer.”
Many online shoppers can relate to searching for the perfect pair of shoes, the latest skincare, or a sought-after collector’s item, only to discover at checkout the international shipping is either cost-prohibitive, takes weeks to arrive, or gets stuck in customs, incurring additional unexpected charges upon delivery. The end result for businesses: a lost sale. These friction points not only cost brands but can also lead to customer dissatisfaction and poor reviews.
“FlavorCloud has tapped into an underserved and massive cross-border enablement market, one that has grown explosively over the past year as the pandemic has accelerated nearly every aspect of e-commerce. They excel at simplifying a complicated yet critical process of international shipping and logistics for DTC brands, end to end, including reverse logistics and supply chain optimization” said Hamoui. “We believe FlavorCloud is well-positioned for rapid growth as the global e-commerce and trade landscape continues to evolve quickly around the world.”
At the helm of the organization, Sharad started her career as a developer and eventually led product organizations in the transportation and logistics industry. She founded FlavorCloud in 2018 when she realized that the “anywhere to anywhere” logistics were a critical need in the DTC industry – and one that was not being met. Sharad was recently named one of the Next 1000 2021 by Forbes.
The money raised will be primarily used to build the scale and footprint of the team, with the remainder on technology and customer acquisition efforts, including AI and data intelligence. FlavorCloud currently supports hundreds of brands, including Lumin, Tamara Mellon, TomboyX, Biossance, Kosas, Atoms, and HaloLife.
For more information, please visit www.flavorcloud.com.
