ShipMonk is an American logistics company headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It provides warehousing and shipping services for online retailers. Its software is used to manage orders and inventory.
Jan Bednář founded the business in 2014, when it began as a service for forwarding packages from the United States to the Czech Republic.
History
Origins and growth While studying at Florida Atlantic University, Bednář began forwarding products purchased in the United States to customers in the Czech Republic. He called the business BedaBox and later added fulfillment service as well.
In January 2016, BedaBox Fulfillment was renamed ShipMonk. Kevin Sides and Václav Jareš joined Bednář as co-founders of the fulfillment business.
ShipMonk initially grew without outside investment. In October 2018, it raised $10 million in a Series A financing round backed by SJF Ventures, Grotech Ventures and Supply Chain Ventures.
Investment and international expansion In December 2020, Summit Partners led a $290 million investment in ShipMonk. The company said it planned to expand its warehouse network and invest in automation. Periphas Capital made a further $65 million investment in January 2021. Part of the investment was used to buy shares from existing shareholders, while the rest went to the company.
In 2021, ShipMonk acquired El Mar Mexico, also known as 321 Fulfillment of Mexico. Its facility in Tecate became ShipMonk's first warehouse outside the United States. In November of that year, it acquired Ruby Has Fulfillment, a deal announced in January 2022. The acquisition added warehouses in the United States, Canada and the UK, as well as more than 700 employees.
In April 2023, ShipMonk opened a fulfillment center near the German border in Cheb, Czech Republic, to serve customers shipping goods within Europe. It also had a software development team in Prague. ShipMonk's annual revenue exceeded $350 million in 2023.
Leadership Bednář stepped down as chief executive in 2023. He remained an executive adviser, and Josh McCarter became CEO. McCarter left ShipMonk in 2024 and co-founder Kevin Sides became chief executive.
Operations ShipMonk stores goods for online retailers and handles order processing, shipping and returns. Its software imports orders from online stores and marketplaces and tracks inventory and shipments.
In recent years, ShipMonk expanded into Mexico, Canada and the UK, and opened a fulfillment center in the Czech Republic.
ShipMonk appeared on the Inc. 5000 list in each year from 2018 through 2025.
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