Fulfilment startup Cubyn raises €35M to expand across Europe

Cubyn, the Paris-based logistics startup that lets e-merchants outsource fulfilment and delivery logistics, has raised another €35 million in funding.

The round is led by Eurazeo and Bpifrance Large Venture, with participation from First Bridge Ventures and Fuse Venture Partners. Existing backers DN Capital, 360 Capital, Bpifrance Smart Cities fund and BNP Paribas Développement followed on.

Cubyn says it will use the new funding to double its team of 85 to more than 170 employees by the end of 2021, and deploy its service more internationally. First up is Spain and Portugal (launching next month), followed by Italy, the U.K. and Germany.

Impressively, the company will open a 25,000 square meter “automated” facility in the Paris area in the coming months as it looks to drive down costs and delivery times.

Originally offering pickup and delivery only, 18 months ago, shortly after Cubyn raised €12 million in Series B funding, the company launched “Cubyn Fulfilment,” seeing it enter fulfilment too.

Described at the time as a fully integrated solution that covers the entire fulfilment process, including keeping stock in Cubyn’s warehouses, it set the company up to grow off the back of an e-commerce boom, prompted not only by the pandemic most recently but also the continuing D2C and marketplace trend. For example, marketplaces Back Market, Rakuten, Mirakl and Fnac are currently using Cubyn.

Its proprietary technology aims to streamline merchant logistics, “ranging from web apps to advanced optimization through algorithm and warehouse robotics,” says Cubyn. The result is that it claims to be able to operate a fully integrated fulfilment solution at a fraction of the industry standard cost. This has seen the company grow its gross merchandise value (GMV) from €30 million to €250 million in 2020.

“Cubyn is disrupting the traditional e-commerce third party logistics market from the ground up, offering a better, faster and cross-border service at a 30% lower price,” says Cubyn co-founder and CEO Adrien Fernandez-Baca in a statement. “We are also providing merchants with not just additional revenue streams, but with our international roll out, we are now opening up new markets for them, outperforming other options available in terms of cost and delivery speed by far”.

“COVID has accelerated the need for merchants to have a reliable, scalable and tech fulfilment solution,” notes Antoine Izsak at Bpifrance Large Venture fund. “We’re excited to work with Cubyn to scale their business across Europe in the next few months”.

Adds Fernandez-Baca: “Today 85% of our shipments are in France, 15% international. With the funding, the ratio is predicted to change to 50-50”.