20 Things You Didn’t Know About SendCloud
SendCloud is a shipping platform that provides all-in-one service for its customers. The startup connects eCommerce businesses with shipping carriers to provide them with fast and easy access to shippers while saving them money on the processes. SendCloud provides a platform that easily integrates into existing business modules and it provides access to various options for shipping.
1. SendCloud reduces shipping time
According to Crunchbase, SendCloud’s platform is beneficial for businesses in several different ways. It not only costs less for shipping in most cases, but it also shaves time off of the shipping process selection for e-commerce businesses. The average time savings is five minutes.
2. SendCloud is not quite a decade old
SendCloud hasn’t been in operation for that long. It was officially launched in 2012. As of 2021, SendCloud has been in business for nine years. The company is headquartered in Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands. The legal name is SendCloud BV. The three entrepreneurs who founded SendCloud are Bas Smeulders, Rob van den Heuvel, and Sabi Tolou. It’s a single focus company that provides fast and affordable shipping but it is listed under four industries including e-commerce, logistics, and shipping.
3. SendCloud uses 90 technologies
The SendCloud platform actively uses 90 technologies to power its website. It’s a complicated array of technologies that are distributed across 39 technology products including jQuery, Google Analytics, HTML5, iPhone Mobile Compatible, Google Font API, SPF, and several others. They work together harmoniously to provide visitors to the website with a smooth and seamless experience.
4. The SendCloud IT overhead is high
Although SendCloud has not disclosed the precise figures for the budget it has for IT, it is expensive. The products and services that it uses to power the website can easily run into hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Comparable companies may even spend over a million dollars or more each year just to keep large websites up and running.
5. SendCloud maintains uniqueness against rivals
SendCloud offers a unique platform that is similar to some of its competition, but it maintains a distinct edge in the industry. This is because SendCloud has secured the registration of two trademarks in the transport, packaging, and storing category. This means that no other company can copy or imitate the intellectual property for which the trademarks apply. These features help SendCloud to stand out among all of the others.
6. SendCloud has a high volume of web traffic
SendCloud has received a high amount of web traffic over the past thirty days. Analytics for the website shows that it received a total of 117,417 visits. This reflects a monthly visits growth rate of 17.66 percent. This has resulted in SendCloud receiving a ranking of number 247,490 of the millions of websites registered on the world wide web.
7. SendCloud is the most popular in The Netherlands
The highest percentage of visitors to the SendCloud website are from The Netherlands. Twenty=six percent of the web traffic comes from this country with a monthly visits growth increase of 45.49 percent over the past 30 days. Twenty=three percent of the visitors come from the United States, sixteen percent are from Germany, ten percent are from Spain and seven percent are from Belgium, which shows a 22.8 percent increase in web traffic. This information is useful for key decision-makers at SendCloud to know where the greatest interest in the company’s products and services lie. They use these statistics to determine e where the company should focus on when it’s time for growth and expansion.
8. SendCloud has a 6-member core executive team
The executive leadership team at SendCloud is composed of six members. Rob van den Heuvel is a co-rounder and chief executive officer. Bas Smeulders is a co-founder and also serves as the chief operating officer. Sabi Tolou is a co-founder. Jaap Rosink is the head of finance. Time Drijvers is the chief technology officer. Tom van den Heuvel is the CMO and head of marketing.
​​​​​​9. SendCloud has a 7-member board of directors
There are seven members on the board of directors at SendCloud. The board is populated with professionals with experience in the business world, who offer their advisement to the company’s leadership on financial matters and for strategic planning. Monika Wilk serves on one board in an advisory role. Marc Wesselink joined the board of directors on July 1, 2014. He is a co-founder at Startupbootcamp Africa. Wesselink has founded 8 organizations and he currently serves on 47 boards of directors in advisory roles. Ruud Hendriks joined the board on April 1, 2014. He is the founder of Startupbootcamp Amsterdam. He has founded 5 organizations and he currently serves on 8 boards of directors in advisory roles. Patrick Zeeuw joined the board of directors on April 1, 2014. Patrick is the co-founder and CEO of Startupboogamp with one portfolio company. He currently serves on 16 boards of directors in advisory roles. Neil Cunha-Gomes currently serves on two boards of directors in advisory roles. Imran Akram joined the board in September of 2020. He is a general partner at AXA Venture Partners. He has founded one organization and currently serves on 3 boards of directors in advisory roles. Ido Krakowsky is the vice president of L. Catterton. He currently serves on one board of directors in an advisory role.
10. SendCloud is a venture capital-backed company
SendCloud has participated in a total of six venture capital fundraising rounds. The most recent round of Series C funding closed on September 15, 2021. The total amount raised so far is $200.9 million.
11. SendCloud’s investors have high confidence in its future
There is high investor confidence in SendCloud’s potential for success. We see this in the amount of funding that its investors have made in the future of the business. There are a total of ten investors baking the fundraising efforts of SendCloud. The most recent investors to join the efforts are SoftBank Vision Fund and HPE Growth. Seven of the investors serve as lead investors. SoftBank Vision Fund led the most recent round of Series C funding. Other investors include L. Catterton, BOM, Bonsai Partners, a lead investorAXA Venture Partners, a lead investor, henQ, also a lead investor, and three other investors who have chosen to remain anonymous at this time.
12. SendCloud is benefiting from the Covid-19 outbreak
According to Techcrunch, the Covid-19 pandemic has fueled the growth that SendCloud is currently experiencing. Due to massive shutdowns and people fearful of venturing out into public shopping venues, more people are staying home and ordering online. This has resulted in a huge growth in the e-commerce industry with more shipping being used daily. SendCloud’s platform has been used more recently than ever before in the history of the company. While the pandemic is bad news for the world, at least some benefits are being seen in some online companies.
13. SendCloud is a disruptor in the shipping industry
The technologies and services that SendCloud provides its customers are giving Amazon a run for its money. It’s a direct competitor for Amazon and it provides a host of shipping carriers who is standing by to provide more options for online companies. SendCloud’s platform provides a viable and efficient alternative to Amazon for the fulfillment of orders. It’s also an easier way for companies to fulfill orders manually. They save time and money by sighing up for the SendCloud platform. This unique and efficient platform is becoming a disruptor in the shipping and order fulfillment sector of the e-commerce industry.
14. SendCloud is also a logistics company
The SendCloud platform has a goal. So far, it’s been reaching that goal. Its mission is to provide logistics to merchants that are at the level of Amazon. Before the pandemic, SendCloud was doing well enough. Now it is experiencing a substantial amount of growth. The company currently has 23,000 customers. Each year the growth rate of the empire is estimated between 70 and 80 percent, up until the lock-down hit. Since the pandemic, business skyrocketed to a growth rate of 120 percent with a 133 percent growth in the parcel volumes handled.
15. Investor interest in SendCloud peaked during the pandemic
We learned that investor interest in SendCloud has recently peaked. Before the pandemic hit, the company had received just $23 million in investor funding. Big investors saw the potential in this company that was already thriving when the pandemic struck. They jumped on the bandwagon in record numbers as it became clear that the shipping industry would see a monumental period of growth. Only recently did the funding exceed $200 million. SoftBank Vision Fund is the largest investor in the company. It led to the most recent round of Series C funding that brought in the additional $177 million to bring the total funding amount to $200 million.
16. SendCloud is an emerging unicorn
The chief executive officer at SendCloud is Rob van den Heuvel. He is also a co-founder who shared that SendCloud is keeping mum about its precise valuation at this time. They’re playing their cards close to the best, but another close source did disclose that the valuation of the company is now estimated to be around $750 million. It would take just one more large fundraising round to elevate SendCloud to the status of a unicorn, meeting the required $1 billion valuation. At this point, it appears that SendCloud is set for unicorn status as there is no sign that the growth or demand for its platform will slow any time shortly.
17. SendCloud faces its share of challenges
Although SendCloud is thriving financially, this doesn’t mean that everything is smooth sailing. The company has had its sharer of challenges. The platform functions at a sophisticated level, but it’s requisite that the logistics flow with impeccable smoothness. They provide services for companies of all sizes big and small. In the e-commerce arena, systems for efficient delivery processes for the smallest companies can be a challenge, and garnering the support of shippers that will provide the best prices is one of the biggest challenges. They’ve been successful in working out the logistics so far. It is an ongoing challenge as many smaller companies still prefer to take their products to the post office manually versus paying for a service. They’re constantly looking for shippers that will offer affordable rates at sale for companies of all sizes. That challenge will continue.
18. SendCloud is an integrator and aggregator
SendCloud is an aggregator that brings e-commerce technology to retailers with a platform that integrates with more than fifty other technology sources and major order fulfillment venues. Among them are WooComerce, Amazon, Magento, Shopify, and a range of others. They hook them up with a broad range of shippers such as DPD, FedEx, UPS, DHL, and others. So far, they work with over 35 shippers, but they’re constantly adding to the list of shippers that are willing to participate. It’s much about bringing all these organizations together and making their platforms work in an automated and integrated manner that provides online shoppers with an efficient, affordable, and seamless transaction.
19. SendCloud offers multiple tiers
The SendCloud platform serves e-commerce businesses of all sizes. The charges range according to scale. Small companies get a big break thanks to the freemium plan that offers them the essentials for shipping at no cost. It’s good news for small companies that are just getting their start. The second tier charges €40 per month for medium-sized operations. The third tier costs €89 per month. The most expensive tier is €179 per month.
20. SendCloud is a privately held company
You won’t find shares of SendCloud stock available on any of the public stock exchanges. It is because the owners of the business decided to keep it as a privately owned company. We’ve found no evidence that the owners or investors plan to take the company public currently. They are making minimum disclosures about the inner workings and strategic plans at this time. We’re sure that we’ll be hearing more about SendCloud in the months and years to come.