This logistics startup is getting 'buried in inbound' from brands after de minimis ended. It just raised $18 million.

Business Insider

29-05-2025

Portless, a logistics startup that helps brands to offer quick shipping, has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Commerce Ventures.
FJ Labs, eGateway Capital, Red Swan Ventures, and Group Up Ventures also contributed to the round.
Portless offers Western brands the chance to use a shipping and fulfillment model made popular by Shein.
Shein grew to dominate the fast-fashion world by responding quickly to changing style trends and shipping packages on planes going directly to customers from warehouses in China. Products cross borders in a matter of days rather than months. For years, Shein did this using the de minimis provision, which allows for the duty-free import of packages valued at less than $800.
Portless emulates this model by shipping from its fulfillment center in Shenzhen, China, near where many of its customers manufacture their goods. For a while, it also used the de minimis exemption.
However, on May 2, the Trump administration ended de minimis shipping as part of its tariff program. That meant many companies had to pivot.
Portless' founder and CEO, Izzy Rosenzweig, told Business Insider that the company had been preparing for the end of de minimis since last September. It raised its Series A with the understanding that de minimis would be ending.
Rosenzweig said that with tariffs disrupting global supply chains, Portless' pitch is resonating with many brands. By fulfilling orders outside the US, the company can help brands defer their duty payments until an order crosses the border on its way to a customer. Portless uses an informal entry process called Type 11 to import the goods to the US. It pays duties on behalf of its brand customers, who then pay Portless back later.
"There isn't a company in the US that isn't looking for a new way of doing things," Rosenzweig said. "We're getting buried in inbound."
Businesses impacted by tariffs and the end of de minimis have also explored other strategies, like storing inventory in bonded warehouses and foreign trade zones, to defer their duty payments and lessen the hit on their balance sheets.
Portless typically works with mid-market brands earning between $5 million and $150 million in annual revenue. Rosenzweig said brands of that size benefit the most from having better access to cash, which Portless helps with by fulfilling small orders by plane instead of tying up large amounts of inventory on shipping containers.
"In our model, it is like a live supply chain," he said. "You're reacting immediately to the demand."
Its customers include home wellness device brand Canopy, kids' clothing brand Andy & Evan, and apparel brand SA Fishing.
Building a 'supply-chain-as-a-service' company
Before creating Portless, Rosenzweig founded an online marketplace called Browze that sourced products directly from factories in China. In his 10 years running the company, he saw firsthand how complicated global supply chains are.
He said Portless plans to use the funding to expand into new markets. It has a new fulfillment center in Vietnam and plans to open another in India by the end of the third quarter.
The company also plans to build more services to help brands improve their supply chain. It plans to introduce the ability to book quality control inspections through its customer portal within the next two months.
"While today Portless is fundamentally changing cash flow with a new supply chain model, we want to simplify supply chain," Rosenzweig said. "A lot of things will change in our model, like small-batch manufacturing, and we'll be rolling out services."
Commerce Ventures partner Matt Nichols said the firm led Portless' Series A because it believes "that the 'direct-ship-from-manufacturer' model will be the future for much of retail."
He said that they invested with the assumption that the de minimis loophole would go away.
"We were able to get comfortable by talking to many of Portless' customers and finding out that the tax advantage was not the reason they decided to choose Portless," he said. "They were all focused on aligning production volumes with actual demand, and this was the best model to facilitate that."