Latest news with #Stord
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UPS Sells Ware2Go To Peter Thiel-Backed Stord As Startup Gains 2.5M Square Feet To Compete With Amazon, Expand To U.K. And Netherlands
Stord, the logistics tech startup founded by former Thiel fellow Sean Henry, is stepping up its campaign to challenge Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) grip on e-commerce by acquiring United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) subsidiary Ware2Go. The deal, announced Monday, brings an additional 2.5 million square feet of fulfillment space into Stord's network and according to CNBC, it strengthens its growing footprint across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and the Netherlands. Don't Miss: Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm — 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. Sean Henry launched Stord at just 18 years old after dropping out of the Georgia Institute of Technology to join the Thiel Fellowship, CNBC says. The fellowship is a program offering ambitious young entrepreneurs $100,000 to pursue startups instead of college, according to the website. Stord is backed by a high-profile lineup of investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Franklin Templeton, and Strike Capital. The firms are fueling the company's ambition to "level the playing field" for independent e-commerce brands that struggle to match Amazon's fulfillment speed, Henry told CNBC. According to Henry, the core problem facing small and mid-size merchants is the lack of scale. Competing with Prime requires a dense, distributed logistics network that most independent brands simply can't afford to build, CNBC reports. By integrating Ware2Go's third-party delivery services into its platform, Stord aims to offer exactly that: a robust infrastructure that brings fast, efficient shipping within reach for thousands of businesses, the company says. Trending: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — Stord's growth strategy is calibrated to thrive in volatile conditions. Henry told CNBC that disruption, from trade policy uncertainty to global events like the pandemic, has historically driven merchants toward platforms like Stord that offer adaptability at scale. According to the company's announcement, the Ware2Go acquisition follows other strategic moves in recent years: the purchase of Pitney Bowes' (NYSE:PBI) e-commerce fulfillment division, freight platform ProPack and direct-to-consumer fulfillment provider Fulfillment Works. With each addition, Stord has expanded its capabilities across every stage of the fulfillment cycle, from warehouse storage to last-mile delivery. Now, with more than 70 partner sites worldwide and a growing tech-integrated operations platform, according to CNBC, Stord is positioning itself as a full-cycle logistics alternative for merchants who want to retain brand control without sacrificing speed or focuses on more than warehousing, developing proprietary software designed to work in lockstep with its physical operations, CNBC says. This tight integration forms what Henry describes as a strong, defensible edge. 'If we are the one who's building our own technology in harmony with our operations, from every stage all the way through the cart... it's gonna be really hard for others to keep up,' he told CNBC. As e-commerce continues to evolve, and more consumers demand fast, reliable shipping from independent brands, Stord's expanding network may prove to be the backbone that helps them compete. Backed by elite investors and driven by a founder with a blueprint for disruption, the company benefits from industry volatility, as brands increasingly turn to flexible platforms that can weather uncertainty and scale with demand. Read Next:Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Image: Shutterstock Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article UPS Sells Ware2Go To Peter Thiel-Backed Stord As Startup Gains 2.5M Square Feet To Compete With Amazon, Expand To U.K. And Netherlands originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
CNBC
22-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Stord CEO Sean Henry talks retails post-tariff supply chain strategy
Stord Co-Founder and CEO Sean Henry joins 'Closing Bell Overtime' to talk the tariff impact on retail shipping.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Stord acquires UPS specialty warehouse business for e-commerce logistics
Omnichannel fulfillment provider Stord has acquired Ware2Go, an on-demand warehousing and fulfillment network, from UPS, the companies announced on Monday. The deal gives the Atlanta-based startup an additional 21 e-commerce warehouses, with a total capacity of 2.5 million square feet of storage space, allowing it to expand much more quickly into new markets to meet growing demand from e-commerce brands. Stord has an extensive network of fulfillment centers concentrated in 11 major metropolitan areas. Stord, founded in 2015, serves as a one-stop shop for e-tailers, managing more than $6 billion of transactions from customers' online checkout to last-mile delivery and inventory management with a suite of warehouse management, order management and parcel transportation software. The Ware2Go acquisition follows the acquisition in recent years of Fulfillment Works, ProPack and Pitney Bowes E-commerce. Last week, Stord announced it has raised more than $200 million in Series E funding from several banks and venture funds, which valued the company at $1.5 billion.'We are in a unique period for e-commerce and retail as brands struggle to manage through shifting global trade policies. Even with macro uncertainty, e-commerce end consumers still expect rapid delivery, perfect order accuracy, easy returns, and more,' said Sean Henry, CEO and co-founder of Stord. 'This acquisition of Ware2Go is a strategic investment that expands our U.S. domestic footprint and capabilities while strengthening our partnership with UPS. This partnership will allow us to deploy our technology across the Ware2Go network, enhance offerings for our joint customers, and combine our scale to be one of the largest fulfillment networks in North America.' UPS (NYSE: UPS) launched Ware2Go in mid-2018 as a platform that matches a diverse range of smaller B2B and B2C e-merchants with available warehouse space. The business aimed at positioning inventory as close to end-users as possible so they can meet guaranteed one-to-two-day deliveries. Through its technology, Ware2Go identifies warehouse capacity that is close to merchants' end customers and vets warehouse operators. The network can scale quickly to meet a merchant's expansion needs. Service offerings include direct-to-consumer shipping, seller fulfillment for sales on Amazon Prime and retail-compliant B2B shipments. UPS, which is in the midst of major network consolidation and cost-reduction initiatives, said the sale of Ware2Go will allow the company to concentrate on its primary express parcel delivery and supply chain management businesses. 'Along with initiatives such as Efficiency Reimagined and the optimization of our U.S. Network, UPS continues to look at ways to provide the most value to customers. The strategic decision to sell Ware2Go allows us to put even greater focus on our core business. We are being selective in the markets we want to serve and intend to serve them better than anyone else,' said Brian Hughes, director of financial and strategy communications, in an email response. 'We look forward to strengthening our relationship with Stord and providing their customers access to UPS's end-to-end services and broad product portfolio.'Stord says it enabled nearly 1% of all Black Friday and Cyber Monday online sales in the United States and achieved record profitability last year. Customers include shower filter-maker Jolie, nonalcoholic beverage retailer and wholesaler The Zero Proof, oral wellness company Quip, and sunglass retailer Goodr. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch. UPS to eliminate 20K jobs as Amazon decoupling accelerates DHL cuts ties with cargo airlines as efficiency initiative ramps up The post Stord acquires UPS specialty warehouse business for e-commerce logistics appeared first on FreightWaves.
CNBC
19-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Stord, the e-commerce startup looking to take on Amazon, acquires UPS subsidiary
Logistics startup Stord said Monday that it's buying UPS subsidiary Ware2Go as it looks to expand its footprint in the e-commerce space. The company declined to provide specifics on the purchase price of the deal. The Atlanta-based company founded by former Thiel Fellow Sean Henry said the acquisition will boost Stord's competitive edge as it looks to chip away at the e-commerce space dominated by the likes of Amazon. Ware2Go is a third-party delivery company that looks to make quick delivery more accessible for merchants, according to its website. Henry told CNBC the acquisition builds on the company's push to "level the playing field" against companies like Amazon's Prime for checkout and fulfillment services for smaller businesses. "The hardest problem for all these independent merchants across the rest of the internet and trying to compete with Prime is really scale," he said. "Logistics is still a physical world where you need a lot of packages, a lot of inventory spread very close to a lot of consumers to be able to offer that level of rapid delivery." Stord said the acquisition adds 2.5 million square feet to the company's existing network of 13 facilities in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and the Netherlands and over 70 partner sites worldwide. The e-commerce logistics company founded in 2015 has been on an acquisition spree in recent months as it looks to expand its full-cycle fulfillment and shipping services. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Stord had bought freight and logistics company ProPack for an undisclosed amount. The company recently raised $200 million in a Series E and debt funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation. Stord's backers include Kleiner Perkins, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Franklin Templeton and Strike Capital.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
I'm a former Thiel fellow who dropped out of college. I now run a $1.3 billion logistics company.
Stord, a commerce enablement platform, is now valued at $1.3 billion. Founder Sean Henry said his entrepreneurial journey began at age 7, selling electronics online. Stord operates a fulfillment network, shipping nearly 50 million packages annually. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sean Henry, the founder of the commerce enablement platform, Stord. It's been edited for length and clarity. When I look back on my life now, at 28, I can easily see that I was always an entrepreneur. The dots usually connect in hindsight. But in the moment, being an entrepreneur often feels a bit like you're in a perpetual existential crisis. You're always wondering what you're supposed to do next. I grew up on a farm in Woodstock, Georgia. My dad grew up in a trailer park in Columbia, South Carolina. He was a field engineer at BellSouth, a telecommunications company, and stayed there for almost 40 years. You might think someone like that would be pretty risk-averse. But the best thing both my parents gave me is the belief that I can do anything. You can see it in my siblings, too — there's an actress, a nurse, a lawyer, and a high school English teacher among us. My founder story began back in elementary school. When I was 7, I was selling items on eBay and Craigslist. I'd post signs around local neighborhoods that said things like, "We'll buy junk electronics" or "I can fix phones and computers." I bought everything from broken phones and computers to used-but-working devices, then cleaned them up, repaired them, or broke them down for parts — batteries, chargers, chips — and resold them. By middle school, I started selling phone cases, too. By high school, I had entered into automotive parts, in part, because I could afford my own car by then. I remember my teachers being mad at me because I was always on my phone in class responding to emails and customer service messages. I tried re-investing the $30,000 in savings I had racked up into other endeavors. I attempted to build an app that lets spectators in sports arenas message people in sections from the opposing team. That didn't really take off. I was trading stocks with my dad on the side. At one point, I even tried my hand at being a YouTuber by making videos about e-commerce. Somehow, I kept coming back to the customer shipping experience. The summer before I entered college at Georgia Tech in 2015, I interned at HUEHOCO, the German metal processing giant. I worked at several of their factories over time, five of which were abroad in Germany, Mexico, and Canada. I noticed that this massive global company with 14 factories worldwide was overspending on every shipment. I launched Stord the year I started college to improve the shipping experience for brands and consumers. I wanted to level the e-commerce playing field so that it wasn't only controlled by Amazon, Walmart, and Target. You, as a consumer, probably see Stord more than you realize. When you see that delivery promise, the shipping insurance offering, or when you get that post-purchase landing page — that's all Stord. We have an orchestration layer of software that helps manage, route, and execute the network. Then we run a physical fulfillment network with 10 of our own fulfillment centers and also partner with over 50 fulfillment centers. I went all in on building Stord while I was at Tech. I hired new employees, we raised a $2.5 million seed round — on top of checks from accelerators and angel investors. I dropped out before my fourth semester. Six months later, I won the Thiel Fellowship. It's a two-year deal that requires you to drop out of college. There's a lot of talk about the value of college these days, especially for young entrepreneurs. I'm a dropout, and I gave my family an analogy to explain my case. Entrepreneurship is like professional sports. If you had an offer from the NBA, I don't think you should go to college, and delay the NBA just because you want the degree first. Stord is now valued at $1.3 billion. Last year, we delivered 30-35 million packages to 11.5% of unique US households. This year, we expect to ship almost 50 million packages to nearly 20% of US households. We exist in markets in the EU, UK, and Canada and plan to launch a few more. In light of the tariffs, we've seen an influx of interest in e-commerce brands looking to move inventory to our US and Canada locations. Over the past few months, we've helped brands divert millions of units. In the short term, I suspect we'll see a lot of brands holding more inventory closer to their primary markets. There's a simple question I ask myself that brought me to where I am today: Why not you? Once you realize that everything in life was made up by someone no smarter than you, everything changes. You think, "If I give this all my energy, why couldn't I transform this industry?" Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
