TechCrunch is hearing from several sources that on-demand shipping startup Shyp is raising around $50 million at a valuation of $250 million.
According to one of our sources, Kleiner Perkins may be leading the funding round. Another source suggested the valuation of the company could be as high as $275 million as part of the current round.
Shyp allows its users to take a photo of an item they want to ship, and then sends someone to pick up the item and deliver it. Shyp packs the item and determines which carrier will be cheapest and most reliable. The whole process costs $5, plus postage, making it one of the cheapest and easiest options out there for shipping anything.
Prior to this round, Shyp had raised a total of $12.1 million, including a $10 million round in July last year. The previous round was led by Shervin Pishevar and Scott Stanford’s SherpaVentures. For a startup like Shyp, extra capital helps to expand to new cities — it’s currently available in Miami, New York and San Francisco.
Earlier this year, Shyp released its Android app and in March launched a service that helps users return goods that they purchased online.
Shyp isn’t the only hot app centered around on-demand delivery and logistics. Postmates is expected to raise $35 million, according to one of our earlier reports. Instacart, an app that lets users order groceries and delivers them, raised $210 million in December. And Uber has also been toying with on-demand services.
A representative from Shyp declined to comment. A representative from Kleiner Perkins did not respond to a request for comment.
