Amazon’s free two-day (and then one-day) shipping changed the e-commerce game. All of a sudden, one of the biggest drawbacks to ordering something online — having to pay for shipping and then wait for your order to come — had gone away. It forever spoiled online shoppers and forced other e-commerce sites to catch up or get left behind.
One of the people who helped Amazon’s shipping empire become a reality was Scott Ruffin, who was the founder and head of Amazon Air — the company’s dedicated air cargo division responsible for sending goods all over the world. After founding and running Amazon Air for a few years, he left and joined Walmart for a brief stint as the VP and head of e-commerce transportation. Now, Ruffin leads Pandion, a new Seattle startup dedicated to faster shipping at a lower cost.
On Tuesday, Pandion announced that it raised $30 million in new funding. This funding includes an oversubscribed $22.5 million Series A round led by Bow Capital, which was immediately followed by a $7.5 million investment from Telstra Ventures. Pandion was founded in 2020 and launched from stealth in February 2021 with a $4.9 million seed round.
Pandion leverages the e-commerce and logistics expertise of Ruffin and his team. Together, they have designed a delivery network specifically built for the age of e-commerce. The company’s technology uses machine learning to quickly and precisely figure out last-mile delivery logistics, saving retailers money and customers time.
The new funding will allow Pandion to grow its company and expand its operations. Part of this includes investing in its new sortation facility in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. This is the company’s first sortation facility and is expected to open this fall. Once it opens, Pandion says it will be able to offer its intelligent delivery services to 45 million people in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Pandion also plans to use some of the funding to invest in staffing this new facility. That includes hiring for over 80 jobs with employees benefits and competitive pay. This is especially important to do ahead of the upcoming holiday shopping season, which is expected to be busier than the previous year.
“Since exiting stealth earlier this year, we’ve received enough demand — from companies ranging from Fortune 100 retailers to smaller e-commerce shippers — to increase our originally planned capacity,” Ruffin said in a statement. “Our mission is to provide low-cost, high-performance delivery that’s purpose-built for e-commerce, and today’s funding will help us continue to scale our technology and sortation center teams as we start operations ahead of another holiday shopping season where demand is expected to significantly outpace capacity.”
