Mouro Capital, a venture capital fund focused on fintechs and adjacent businesses and backed by Banco Santander, has led a €16 million ($19 million) founding round in the tech-driven digital logistics and fulfilment platform byrd.
Other investors were Verve Ventures, Speedinvest, Rider Global and VentureFriends.
byrd, founded in Vienna (Austria) in 2016 and now the leading independent e-commerce platform in Europe, will use the funding to expand its fulfilment network into five new geographies in eastern, northern and southern European markets. Funding will also go towards hiring talent and scaling offices already serving existing markets in Austria, France, Germany, and the UK. byrd’s growing workforce is anticipated to double to 200 by the end of the year as the company plans to hire across all departments and offices.
Manuel Silva Martínez, general partner at Mouro Capital, said: “We are delighted to be leading byrd’s Series B funding round, particularly as the pandemic has brought the need for flexible, digital e-commerce fulfilment solutions into sharp relief. Byrd’s end-to-end capabilities, focus on sustainability, and household brand customers set it apart from its competitors, and we look forward to seeing the successes that the geographic expansion enabled by this investment will bring.”
Petra Dobrocka, co-founder and chief commercial officer of byrd, commented: “This latest funding will turbo charge our already rapid growth, which has already seen us become Europe’s number 1 independent e-commerce fulfilment platform. E-commerce is a pivotal channel for today’s Direct-to-Consumer brands and, thanks to our comprehensive fulfilment platform and warehouse network, we are supporting more and more retailers to optimise their logistics processes, with a scalable and personalisable solution. We look forward to welcoming even more customers to our platform and helping them transform their e-commerce fulfilment into a competitive advantage.”
In combination with its network of 15 warehouses across Europe and its cloud-based fulfilment software, byrd’s customers can outsource and manage their e-commerce fulfilment logistics through a single, highly accurate digital interface. Managing the largest warehouse network of any e-commerce platform of its type, byrd handles the whole order fulfilment process from storage to shipping, as well as returns management, and gives merchants the ability to evaluate and manage their supply-chain in real-time with a few simple clicks, giving them full clarity and control.
byrd has seen its revenue growth exceed 300% year on year and the business now handles hundreds of thousands of parcels per month from large, established and fast-growing brands including Durex, Freeletics, Scholl and Your Superfoods. Customers include Direct-to-Consumer brands scaling quickly in the health and wellness, FMCG, cosmetics and fashion industries. Rather than owning warehouses outright, byrd partners with logistics companies across 15 sites. byrd’s technology connects e-commerce systems and marketplaces (e.g. Amazon, Plentymarkets, Shopify and Shopware) with its network of experienced third-party logistics providers.