The French start-up big blue raised in a $15 million Series A round. The company operates an order management platform from direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. In other words, a D2C brand can outsource everything related to logistics to big blue so they can focus on the product and marketing.
Runa Capital led the round, with LPV acting as the "secondary lead investor." Existing investor Samaipata is also participating once more.
The startup currently operates in three countries: France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. It has signed partnerships with five different warehouses representing more than 60,000 square meters of storage space. customers of big blue they can send their products directly to these warehouses to be stored and managed by the startup.
After that initial period, every time someone orders something from a customer of big blue, the product is sent to the final customer through the transport network of big blue. The startup has integrations with more than 20 different carriers and can ship across Europe, and even globally, but despite this, finding different D2C partners in other markets might be a more appropriate move.
big blue allows you to personalize your package and add notes to personalize the end customers experience. And if there are any issues, customers are encouraged to file a return request on a branded return portal. It supports store credit as well as refunds.
“With this new round, we will support scalable service offerings for the growing base of online merchants in big blue, we will boost hiring efforts and continue to position the company as a leader in the D2C compliance space,” co-founder and CEO Tim Dumain said in a statement. .
The result is quite simple. big blue wants to offer an Amazon-like experience, but with a third-party fulfillment base. big blue It integrates with many different sales channels such as Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Wix, and Magento, as well as various marketplaces on Cdiscount, Fnac, and yes, Amazon.
It means you can promise free one- or two-day delivery in various markets. And this is key when it comes to being chosen as the top seller on a product page in an online marketplace. Customers also receive follow-up emails from the brand.
The startup competes with other D2C e-commerce logistics companies, such as cubyn, Hive y there was. In general, big blue has managed to attract 300 clients, such as fromfutur, unbottled y wearejolies. The company plans to ship 4 million packages this year. Over the next 12 months, the startup plans to hire another 100 employees and expand across Western Europe.
