Scurri to create 100 jobs after raising €9m in investment

Online logistics company Scurri is to create 100 new jobs after raising €9 million from backers. It intends to use the financing to satisfy growing demand from businesses for its software.

Co Wexford-based Scurri, which describes itself as the “Stripe for shipping”, has developed a delivery-management platform that makes it easier for online retailers to ship goods to customers.

The company, which hit profitability earlier this year, derives more than 70 per cent of its revenues from Britain and expects to be behind more than 100 million parcel deliveries there in 2021.

Scurri helps merchants find the most efficient delivery option from more than 700 courier service providers. It also allows retailers to create accurate labels, track shipments from dispatch to delivery, and it provides delivery analytics. Customers include Ebay and Vision Direct.

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The company, which was recently named among the top 40 global retail tech start-ups for the second year running, employs 45 people. It now plans to treble its workforce to more than 120 employees over the next two years.

Speaking to The Irish Times, founder and chief executive Rory O’Connor said most of the new roles would be in sales and marketing with the company also boosting the numbers working in engineering and product development.

‘Unprecedented demand’

Mr O’Connor said Scurri had seen unprecedented demand for its services arising from an acceleration of online shopping during the Covid crisis, and on the back of increased trading and logistics complexities due to Brexit. The company has experienced 100 per cent growth over the past year and Mr O’Connor forecast it would continue to see strong demand even as businesses learn to adapt to challenges.

“We help remove friction and complexity and so, with ecommerce growing dramatically and logistics becoming more complex, a growing number of businesses are seeking our support,” he said.

“Also, there were many organisations that weren’t properly prepared pre-Brexit and the pandemic, and that maybe just patched something together so as to be able to get by. They are now looking at doing digital transformation properly so they don’t get caught again,” Mr O’Connor added.

The new investment was led by Gresham House Ventures and brings total funding to date to €15.3 million. Other participants in the funding round included Irish tech veteran Pa Nolan.

London-based Gresham has made more than 100 investments over the past 12 years. It typically invests between £500,000 and £10 million (€580,000- €11.65 million) per deal.