Curt Woodward on Xconomy reports that EquaShip, the Seattle startup that’s aiming to wrangle dramatically cheaper shipping costs for small and medium-sized businesses, has added another $600,000 in financing from undisclosed investors. That pushes the startup’s total funding to $1.5 million, following the announcement of a $900,000 investment in June.
EquaShip rolled out its service in October, targeting the small sellers—many of them doing business on eBay and Amazon—who don’t get big-account treatment fro FedEx and UPS. Founder and CEO Ron Wiener says there are millions of those businesses around the country, and EquaShip says it can offer them rates that are “typically 28 percent to 79 percent below UPS and FedEx residential ground rates.”
EquaShip does that by partnering with smaller carriers, who funnel packages through the U.S. Postal Service for final delivery—what’s known as a consolidator service. EquaShip also offers package tracking and insurance. The company plans to use the new investment to add software features and drop-off locations.
As fascinating as the idea continues to sound, please remember that shipping is a scale economics business and that UPS and FedEx are the winners on cost. Unless EquaShip can somehow amass the scale to go after them, it will remain a niche business that serves a niche clientele.
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