Shipment Tracking Startup Route Claims Unicorn Status After $200 Million Funding Round
Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.
Ecommerce shipment tracking startup Route—which is based in the “Silicon Slopes” hotbed surrounding Salt Lake City but has a growing presence in Los Angeles—is now claiming unicorn status after raising $200 million in new funding at a $1.25 billion valuation.
Route co-founder and CEO Evan Walker told Forbes that a “London-based investment firm” led its latest funding round, while declining to name the firm due to a nondisclosure agreement. Other investors in the round included L.A.-based Riot Ventures, Madrona Venture Group and Eldridge. The new funding takes Route’s total capital raised to $291 million, Forbes reported, with Walker noting that he remains “by far the biggest majority stockholder” in the company. (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder and chairman Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Route.)
Though online sales aren’t growing like they were at the height of coronavirus lockdown restrictions, Route has continued to benefit from the overall trend towards ecommerce. According to Forbes, its annual revenues more than doubled in 2021, to around $80 million.
Though Route’s package-tracking app is free for consumers, the startup makes money by selling shipping, insurance and marketing software to online retailers. Founded in 2018, the company has attracted more than 11,000 merchant clients and tracked more than 175 million packages.
Of Route’s roughly 450-person staff, approximately 40 are based out of its Santa Monica office. Walker said the firm is looking to ramp up its recruiting of tech talent on the West Coast, while a Route spokesperson told dot.LA that it “plans to grow pretty rapidly throughout this year across all departments.”
Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.
