Shipster secures investment to disrupt ecommerce shipping market

The rapid rise in ecommerce and pressures on delivery and returns have created the perfect storm for British shipping technology company, Shipster, which has secured investment from Manchester-based Fearless Adventures.

Newly headquartered in a building originally created for the Manchester Shipping Office and Packing Company (1868), Shipster’s software shakes up the sector by making extremely bespoke shipping software much more accessible to growing online retailers. This is enabled by a “no-price-per-shipment” model and a skilled technical support team that can make same-day shipping rule changes for client warehouses. This has boosted the shipping operations of many exciting next-generation brands, including AYBL, Missy Empire, Lounge, and Oh Polly.

Shipster will use the fresh funds to expand its team and develop its offering, including options for carbon-neutral shipping and end-customer experience features. Additionally, it will work with Fearless Adventures’ co-founders, young entrepreneurs David Newns, Dominic McGregor and Charlie Yates to supercharge its growth strategy.

The investment is strategically significant for the investor. Fearless Adventures specialises in supporting fast growing D2C companies, so the addition of Shipster to its ‘family’ will drive significant future benefits to other portfolio investments.

Quality of ordering, delivery, and returns will influence whether a shopper buys from a seller or not, but before Shipster, customisable shipping technology has been less available to growing e-commerce businesses. Now customers like Oh Polly save tens of thousands of pounds per year with Shipster’s platform. Once a consumer pays for an order, Shipster automatically creates shipments and courier bookings, generates tracking information and all shipping and customs documentation. Today, Shipster is running on over 1000 warehouse packing benches and over 60 leading couriers have been integrated, including the addition of five services in the Middle East. Shipster is growing fast and processed over 26.3 million shipments last year alone.

Hayley Cowburn, Shipster co-founder, said: “It’s time to take our biggest leap to grow the company, and in more than financial support. We want people who have ‘done it before’ and bring valuable experience and expertise to the table. We spoke to a few companies about investment but found many to be overly corporate and impersonal. The Fearless Adventures team are different; they feel like a true extension of the team with a genuine sense of excitement for our company’s future. It’s breathed some new life into our ambitions and motivated us further.”

David Newns, Fearless Adventures’ co-founder, said: “No one has truly disrupted the ecommerce shipping space until now, so it’s an exciting opportunity. Before Shipster, the pain point for many growing ecommerce companies were products that were overpriced, sub-optimal quality, and under-par support. Now those companies love Shipster’s product, team, and what they’ve done to improve their shipping. They’re making a real difference in the warehouses of promising ecommerce brands, and in the process made themselves an essential building block in tomorrow’s ecommerce economy.”

Founded in October 2021 by young entrepreneurs David Newns, Dominic McGregor, and Charlie Yates, Fearless Adventures is an investment firm that offers its partners support through funding, strategy, marketing services, and talent. Fearless Adventures are signatories to the Investing in Women Code, and nearly all the investees are female-founded or co-founded businesses.