Shyp Raises $2.1 Million to Take the Pain Out of Shipping

What's This?

By Seth Fiegerman2013-10-01 03:00:14 UTC

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Name: Shyp

One-Liner Pitch: Shyp borrows from the Uber playbook to make it easier for customers to ship random items.

Why It's Taking Off: Users can scan an item they want to ship using Shyp's app; then the startup sends over a driver to pick up the item, package it and mail it to your chosen destination.

Mail delivery may not exactly sound like the sexiest space for new businesses, but in recent months, we've seen a slew of new same-day delivery services, including a company that aims to digitize snail mail and even a startup from a former FedEx employee that helps customers get refunds on late deliveries. Now, we can another company to that list: Shyp.

A San Francisco startup, Shyp promises to let customers package and ship items with the touch of a button. Its iPhone app will let users snap a photo of gifts, electronics or other items that they want delivered, and then select the destination and pick-up time. Based on that information, Shyp then sends a driver — recruited through a system similar to that of Uber's — to pick up the item, package it and mail it to the desired location.

The service is currently in private beta, but the ultimate goal is to do away with the inconvenience of packaging items and waiting in line at your local UPS or FedEx.

"We're trying to make shipping really, really easy," Kevin Gibbon, Shyp's CEO and co-founder, told Mashable. "You have some physical item that you want to send somewhere else — that's essentially all we want you to think about. We don't want you to think about any sort of packaging, carriers, etcetera."

Shyp is accepting signups now on its website, with plans for a general launch in San Francisco in the coming months, and then a wider roll out to other cities.

While it isn't live yet, Gibbon said Shyp will charge the same delivery rate as the U.S. Post Office, as well as an additional $5 fee if the customer is only shipping one item. It intends to make money by negotiating discounts with the major carriers thanks the volume of items it will be shipping, and pocketing the difference.

Shyp announced Monday that it raised $2.1 million from Homebrew, PayPal president David Marcus, Google Earth founder Brian McClendon and best-selling author Tim Ferriss, who helped the startup generate a few headlines last week. Shyp became the first startup to take advantage of the government's decision to lift the ban on general solicitation, which allowed it to publicly disclose that it was fundraising. Ferriss wrote a blog post about Shyp's funding, and helped the company raise $250,000 in less than an hour — 53 minutes to be exact.

"We've been working with Tim Ferriss for awhile now, and we did time it with the general solicitation law lifting. We just wanted to be the first company to try it out," Gibbon said, adding that the remainder of the $2.1 million round was raised through "traditional sources."

Image: Flickr, CATS Hill Web Design

Topics: apps, Apps and Software, Business, Startups, The Launchpad