Temando, a leading fulfilment software platform for ecommerce, recently raised a $50 million Series B investment from Neopost, the second largest global mail solutions provider.
Temando intends to use these funds for further product development in APAC and to continue its rapid growth in the US and UK by leveraging Neopost’s global reach.
“We are thrilled to have the backing of such a major player in our industry,” Carl Hartmann, Temando co-founder and CEO commented.
“Our investment in Temando further expands our portfolio of fast-growing activities in communication and shipping solutions,” said Denis Thiery, chairman and CEO of Neopost.
“It provides us with technologies that complement our existing offering in shipping management, especially ecommerce, compliance control and full landed costs.”
“This transaction is a unique opportunity to extend our footprint among online retailers and fulfilment service providers,” he added.
Fulfilment – the final hurdle for ecommerce
Since the dawn of the internet and the conception of ecommerce, retailers have been facing the same three challenges – merchandising, payments and fulfilment.
Today, powerful merchandising tools and frictionless payment have been made – we can confidently say we now have those two well taken care of.
Fulfilment remains the last fundamental challenge for retailers to overcome.
However, a paradigm shift is now happening in fulfilment, driven largely by consumers demanding more choice in delivery and better shipping experiences from retailers.
Retailers have therefore been forced to look for advanced technologies to solve the critical parts of today’s costly and complex fulfilment processes.
- unify inventory across multiple locations (e.g. in-store, drop ship warehouses),
- access multiple couriers and delivery options all at once (Australia Post, TNT etc.),
- reliably predict courier speed,
- accurately estimate shipping costs,/li>
- and determine consumers’ exact locations.
That’s one hell of a to-do list!
How is Temando solving the problem of fulfilment?
The company’s intelligent cloud software, gives customers access to multiple couriers globally and allows them to easily compare several delivery options in one system, including cost, service type, speed and reliability.
The platform empowers retailers to turn fulfilment from a large cost into a powerful competitive advantage, from lowering costs and increasing conversion rates to delivering more courier and packaging choices and a premium-level customer service in delivery.
Temando can also automatically recommend the most cost-effective shipping route from the retailer’s warehouse or physical store closest to a customer’s location.
For example, if a customer is located in Melbourne and a retailer has a warehouse in Sydney and a physical store in Melbourne, Temando will select the Melbourne store, ensure the product is in stock, and pick the cheapest courier service that meets the customer’s delivery expectations.
What is the story behind Temando?
Temando (Spanish for “I send you”) was created by Carl Hartmann, Cameron Deane and Matt Malady on the sandy beaches of Australia, where fulfilment has always been very complex due to the vast geography and highly fragmented delivery infrastructure.
It’s because of this challenging environment that Temando was launched 6 years ago.
Temando raised $1 million in seed capital in 2011 and then $5 million in Series A venture capital from Ellerston Capital in 2012.
The company, which now has offices in Brisbane, Sydney, San Francisco, London and Manila, has consistently been one of Australia’s fastest growing software companies, as recognised in the annual Asia Pacific Deloitte Technology Fast 500.
It has 50,000 registered retailers and merchants and works with some of the largest brands in the world, including ASOS, Krispy Krème, Moët Hennessy, Nike, and ToysRUs.
Furthermore, Bob Schwartz, a former president of Magento (a leading ecommerce tech platform) who has been serving as a strategic advisor to Temando since 2014, has been appointed to the company’s board of directors.
Schwartz is a serial entrepreneur and leader of tech and consumer internet companies, producing over $1 billion of value for shareholders and founders via acquisitions by Amazon, eBay, Nordstrom, Packard Bell, First American, Cendant, Aetna and others.
He led the growth of Magento to 30 per cent global market share and its sale to eBay.
Clearly, this is one guy who is good at what he does…
