Vienna’s byrd flies away with $56 million to enable next-day e-commerce delivery

The world of e-commerce is getting competitive by the day. The growth in e-commerce demand, plus current supply chain issues, mean that retailers need resilient and scalable tech-enabled third-party fulfilment platforms

Betting big on the rise in demand for providers of logistics technologies, Vienna-based digital e-commerce fulfilment platform byrd has raised $56 million in funding to let e-commerce retailers deliver the next day to consumers anywhere in Europe. The round was led by Cambridge Capital, with participation from Speedinvest, Mouro Capital, Elevator Ventures and other existing shareholders.

The logistics startup had raised €16 million in funding last year in July. The Series C round brings the total investment raised within the last 10 months to $75 million. The new funds will be used to strengthen the company’s presence in existing markets by expanding the local teams, and will allow byrd to launch in Sweden, Denmark, and Poland later this year. Currently, the platform serves the U.K., France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria, and has recently launched new warehouse locations in Italy and Spain. Byrd also plans to launch support for Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime programme, allowing it to tap into the large market of Amazon sellers who are looking for an alternative to FBA.

Founded in 2016 by Alexander Leichter, Sebastian Mach and Petra Dobrocka, the startup operates a virtual network to provide order fulfilment services to online retailers across Europe. The software is used by warehouse partners and integrates seamlessly with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify or Amazon. 

The startup will face intense competition from the likes of Berlin-based Forto  which raised a mammoth funding of $250 million and almost doubled its valuation to $2.1 billion to become a unicorn and London’s real-time overview of supply chain software provider Zencargo which raised £30 million last year.

Alexander Leichter, CEO and co-founder, byrd, said: “e-commerce retailers are under even more pressure from consumers to deliver as fast as possible, without charging for shipping. At the same time, the global supply chain crunch is putting increasing pressure on margins and creating significant delivery issues. This means retailers must look for scalable fulfilment services that cover their core markets globally.”  

Matt Smalley, principal, Cambridge Capital, who is joining byrd’s board of directors, added: “The platform’s tech-driven approach and proprietary warehouse management software enables it to run an asset-light fulfilment network. byrd’s broad coverage of the European market, excellent customer momentum and strong satisfaction with both retailers and warehouse partners appealed to us right away.”