Image: Byrd
The Vienna-based e-commerce company has received €26m in investment since being founded in 2016.
Logistics service Byrd has secured €16m of investment in a Series B funding round led by Mouro Capital.
This marks Mouro’s first investment in the company, joined by VentureFriends, Rider Global, Speedinvest and Verve Ventures. Following a €5m Series A round in July 2020, this brings the total invested in Byrd to €26m.
The start-up, which was founded in Vienna in 2016, connects online retailers to an international network of fulfilment centres and delivery services via a cloud-based interface. It’s led by founders Petra Dobrocka, Alexander Leichter, Christoph Krofitsch and Sebastian Mach.
Byrd operates from 15 warehouses in Europe and plans to use the new capital to expand its service into five new countries across the continent. It also aims to double its workforce to 200 by the end of 2021.
The company doesn’t own its network of fulfilment centres outright, but works with a number of logistics partners including DHL, DPD and GLS to handle clients’ deliveries. Its software is capable of integrating with online retail platforms such as Amazon’s fulfilled-by-merchant (FBM) service and Shopify.
Byrd says it has seen revenue increases of more than 300pc year-on-year, and that it now handles “hundreds of thousands of parcels per month” from more than 200 merchants.
Dobrocka, who serves as Byrd’s chief operating officer, said: “This latest funding will turbo-charge our already rapid growth, which has already seen us become Europe’s number one independent e-commerce fulfilment platform.
“We look forward to welcoming even more customers to our platform and helping them transform their e-commerce fulfilment into a competitive advantage,” Dobrocka added.
Manuel Silva Martínez, general partner at Mouro Capital, commented: “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.
“We look forward to seeing the successes that the geographic expansion enabled by this investment will bring.”
Rider Global led Byrd’s Series A funding round last year, which VentureFriends and Speedinvest also participated in. Speedinvest also provided the company with seed capital in 2016. Series B marks Verve Ventures’ first investment in Byrd.
