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Flexport
also invests · investor profileUnicorn · $8BYC W14YC Top CompanyTop employer of YC founders · 16San Francisco, US · Founded 2013 · Delaware corporation · 3,000 employees · Hiring · 79 known investors
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Flexport provides an AI-driven platform for global supply chain management, offering logistics visibility, customs brokerage, and freight optimization for companies shipping goods internationally. The platform integrates machine learning and autonomous decision-making to reduce freight costs and improve on-time performance across ocean, air, truck, and rail shipments.
Also known as Flexport Inc · Flexport Inc.
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W14)
Flexport was founded in 2013 by Ryan Petersen and Ryan Peterson.
Board
Investors · 79
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Also in the syndicate · 2
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$1.8B disclosed across 3 of 11 rounds · 2016–2024
- $260MraisedJan 2024 · 2 sourcesSource ↗
- Undisclosed amountSeries COct 2017
DST Global (lead), Founders Fund, Susa Ventures, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital
Source ↗ - Undisclosed amountSeries CSep 2017Source ↗
- Undisclosed amountSeries BSep 2016
8VC, Bloomberg Beta, Felicis Ventures, First Round Capital, Founders Fund, Susa Ventures
Source ↗
▶$933.7MraisedFeb 2022 · 22 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
- Bob SwanDirector
- Trae StephensDirector
- Sanne MandersExecutive Officer
- Ryan PetersenExecutive Officer, Director
- Christopher FerroExecutive Officer
- Kenny WagersExecutive Officer
- Offering amount
- $935.4M
- Amount sold
- $933.7M
- First sale
- Jan 2022
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$604.3MraisedMay 2019 · 50 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
- Michael RonenDirector
- Sanne MandersExecutive Officer
- Trae StephensDirector
- Christopher FerroExecutive Officer
- Sudhanshu PriyadarshiExecutive Officer
- Ryan PetersonExecutive Officer, Director
- Offering amount
- $1.1B
- Amount sold
- $604.3M
- First sale
- Apr 2019
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.
Valuation · disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed — follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Flexport Inc. is a San Francisco-headquartered supply chain management and logistics company that combines freight forwarding and licensed customs brokerage with a cloud software platform. Its services span ocean freight (FCL and consolidation), air freight including charters, trucking (drayage, cartage, FTL and LTL), customs brokerage, cargo insurance, duty drawback, order management, trade advisory, trade financing and working capital, climate services, warehousing and omnichannel e-commerce fulfillment. The platform connects importers, exporters, trucking companies, ocean carriers, airlines, customs agencies and port terminals, integrating ERP data across parties so that cargo information and freight processing can be managed in one system.
The company positions itself around SKU-level track-and-trace across purchase orders, a machine-learning consolidation and routing engine for air and ocean shippers, and compliance tooling such as a Tariff Simulator, Tariff Refund Calculator, Product Library and AI Compliance Auditor. It also runs reporting and analytics for data-informed supply chain decisions. Flexport's fulfillment arm serves as a logistics partner for platforms and retailers including Shopify, Walmart and SHEIN Marketplace, and named customers include Everlane and Trek.
As described by third-party research, Flexport's core forwarding role requires coordinating with as many as 20 companies to move freight internationally, in an industry where legacy players still rely heavily on faxes, phone calls, email and PDFs. Wikipedia reports revenue of $2.1 billion in 2024 and 2,100 employees in 2025; Y Combinator lists a team size of 3,000 and more than 40,000 customers, while Contrary Research lists 2,793 employees and a Series E stage as of February 2026.
Business model
Flexport operates as a technology-enabled freight forwarder and customs broker: it contracts capacity from ocean carriers, airlines and trucking networks and resells transportation and related services to shippers, layering software for visibility, consolidation, routing, customs entry automation and analytics on top. Adjacent revenue lines include customs brokerage and trade advisory, cargo insurance, duty drawback, trade financing/working capital, warehousing and e-commerce fulfillment, quality inspections and product sourcing. Its early go-to-market resolved a two-sided chicken-and-egg problem by using the software as a differentiator to obtain conditional commitments from shippers, which were then used to negotiate rates with carriers. The company also invests in logistics technology startups, for example participating in the seed round of Pakistani trucking startup Bridgelinx in 2021.
▸Full profile — history
History
Flexport was founded in 2013 by brothers Ryan and David Petersen and participated in Y Combinator's Winter 2014 batch. It told Chinese outlet 36Kr in May 2015 that it was on pace for $60 million in 2015 sales, had more than 600 customers in 2016, and in July 2016 employed 420 people across seven offices including Atlanta, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Shenzhen at a $365 million valuation. In 2017 it raised a $110 million Series C — reportedly turning down a $1 billion valuation — bringing cited cumulative funding to $304 million, and began opening its own consolidation warehouses in Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Layoffs followed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but 2021 brought record growth: revenue more than doubled to $3.2 billion, headcount reached nearly 2,700 across 23 offices, and the company recorded its first EBIT-positive year.
In February 2022 Flexport raised a $935 million Series E at an $8 billion valuation, and in June 2022 named Amazon consumer chief Dave Clark CEO. In May 2023 Shopify sold its logistics business to Flexport for roughly 13% of the company. Clark resigned in September 2023 after disagreements with Ryan Petersen, who resumed the CEO role and rescinded dozens of outstanding job offers. Flexport bought the assets of collapsed digital freight unicorn Convoy in November 2023, took a $260 million uncapped convertible note investment from Shopify announced in January 2024, and agreed in July 2025 to sell the Convoy Platform to DAT Freight & Analytics. The Wall Street Journal reported in March 2025 that the company missed a profitability target.
Compiled by commissioned research from 12 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Founder mafia
The Flexport mafia →37 people who came through Flexport went on to found or lead other companies.
Related companies · 10
Companies working in the same space as Flexport.
Timeline · 27
launches, deals, and filingsFlexport sold the rebuilt Convoy freight-matching platform to DAT Freight & Analytics for undisclosed terms, retaining the digital brokerage business; DAT will integrate the platform into DAT One and Convoy staff move to DAT under Bill Driegert.
In July 2025, Flexport agreed to sell the Convoy Platform to DAT Freight & Analytics.
Flexport announced a suite of AI-powered products and a plan to launch new product waves twice a year, with a second release expected in late summer 2025.
Flexport relaunched the Convoy platform, giving its customers and legacy Convoy shippers access to the app; access was extended to brokers later in 2024.
Investment of $260 million from Shopify structured as an uncapped convertible note; announced by CEO Ryan Petersen and published on Flexport's blog in January 2024.
$260M source ↗
Flexport raised $260 million from Shopify on an uncapped convertible note; CEO Ryan Petersen announced the update internally and the company published it in January 2024.
$260M source ↗
Flexport purchased the assets of Convoy, a digital freight trucking software company previously valued at over $1 billion that had shut down operations weeks earlier.
Flexport purchased the technology assets of shuttered digital freight brokerage Convoy and retained a small group of its product and engineering employees, including CEO Dan Lewis; it did not acquire the company or its liabilities. Financial terms were undisclosed.
Flexport laid off 20% of its workforce in October 2023, following a separate 20% reduction in January 2023, as part of an effort to return to profitability.
Clark resigned in September 2023 after roughly one year, following disagreements with founder Ryan Petersen, who resumed the CEO role. Upon returning, Petersen rescinded dozens of accepted job offers.
Clark resigned after about one year following disagreements with founder Ryan Petersen, who resumed the CEO role and subsequently rescinded dozens of job offers.
WSJ reported Flexport tapped an Uber Freight executive to build its truck brokerage business.
Shopify sold its logistics service (including Deliverr and other assets) to Flexport in exchange for 13% of Flexport.
Shopify sold its logistics service to Flexport in exchange for 13% of the company.
Flexport announced that Amazon worldwide consumer chief Dave Clark would join as CEO.
Flexport announced that Amazon worldwide consumer chief Dave Clark would join as CEO; founder Ryan Petersen became executive chairman.
Series E round led by Andreessen Horowitz and MSD Partners, with new investor Shopify and existing investors DST Global, Founders Fund, SoftBank Vision Fund and angel Kevin Kwok; valuation of $8 billion. CNBC reported Michael Dell among investors.
$935M source ↗
Round led by Andreessen Horowitz and MSD Partners, with new investor Shopify and existing investors DST Global, Founders Fund and SoftBank Vision Fund, plus Kevin Kwok. Proceeds earmarked for platform development, geographic expansion and investment in logistics-technology startups.
$935M source ↗
Flexport, together with Volatus Aerospace, Aurora International, Dymond and Astral Aviation, agreed to purchase 440+ aircraft worth $6 billion from US-based Natilus.
$6B source ↗
Flexport participated in the seed round of Pakistan-based trucking startup Bridgelinx (BridgeLinx raised $10 million).
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Flexport announced layoffs alongside other Silicon Valley technology startups.
Flexport announced layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic alongside other Silicon Valley technology startups.
Flexport opened an engineering hub in Bellevue, Washington shortly after raising $1 billion.
Flexport raised $110 million in a Series C round; reporting at the time noted the company turned down a $1 billion valuation. As of 2017 total raised was cited as $304 million.
$110M source ↗
Flexport and founder Ryan Petersen were accepted into the Y Combinator accelerator.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
Legal entities · 2
corporate structureIn the news
Flexport (YC W14) Secures $1bn Funding Led by Softbank Vision Fundflexport.com · Feb 2019▸Research sources · 12
primary sources listed
- Flexportflexport.com · web
12 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Flexport do?
- Flexport provides an AI-driven platform for global supply chain management, offering logistics visibility, customs brokerage, and freight optimization for companies shipping goods internationally. The platform integrates machine learning and autonomous decision-making to reduce freight costs and improve on-time performance across ocean, air, truck, and rail shipments.
- Who founded Flexport?
- Flexport was founded by Ryan Petersen, Ryan Peterson in 2013.
- Who are Flexport's investors?
- Flexport's investors include 137 Ventures, 1435 Capital, 3Spoke Capital, 8VC, Acequia Capital (AceCap), Adit Ventures Management, Llc, Allied Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and 69 more.
- How much funding has Flexport raised?
- Flexport has disclosed $1.8B raised across 3 of its 11 known rounds.
- Where is Flexport headquartered?
- Flexport is headquartered in San Francisco, US.