Stord raises $250 million at $3 billion valuation to deploy AI across fulfillment network

Amazon fulfillment competitor Stord raises $250M at $3B valuation | TechCrunch

E-commerce logistics company Stord has raised a $250 million round at a $3 billion valuation, it announced Tuesday. This doubles its valuation from a year-ago round. The new funding was led by Strike Capital with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Franklin Templeton, Baillie Gifford, G Squared, and Bond. Stord was founded in 2015 by then-college students CEO Sean Henry and CTO Jacob Boudreau while they were still at Georgia Tech. It was soaring along, run by the two young founders, through the frothy pandemic-era of VC funding, hitting unicorn status in 2021. The startup survived the subsequent VC funding winter and in 2025, raised a $200 million mega round, also led by Strike Capital, that brought it to a $1.5 billion valuation. It has now raised a total of about $775 million to date. Stord offers a network of physical warehouses and inventory management software for e-commerce. It bills itself as a sort of anti-Amazon, giving brands "the speed to compete" while still owning their customer relationships. In this AI age, the Atlanta-based fulfillment startup is gaining attention again, especially after it added an AI interface to its software. It was recently highlighted by Google at the tech giant's Cloud Next conference in April.

Stord raises $250M at $3B valuation to take on Amazon

The Atlanta logistics startup, now valued at $3 billion, is betting that AI and robotics can close the fulfillment gap that keeps smaller retailers from matching Amazon's next-day delivery promise Stord, a logistics technology company that helps retailers manage inventory, checkout, and fulfillment, has raised $250 million in a Series F round that values the company at $3 billion. The round was led by Strike Capital with participation from Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins, Franklin Templeton, Baillie Gifford, G Squared, and Bond. The funding doubles Stord's valuation from its $200 million raise at $1.5 billion in 2025 and brings total capital raised since the company's founding in 2015 to more than $775 million. Stord's pitch is straightforward. Amazon's competitive advantage is not its product catalogue or its payments system. It is the infrastructure that lets customers buy something and trust it will arrive the next day. Stord wants to deliver that same infrastructure to every brand that does not have Amazon's warehouse network, logistics software, or delivery fleet. "That's what infrastructure we want to deliver to every other independent brand," said Sean Henry, Stord's co-founder and chief executive. The company currently operates nearly 100 warehouses globally and processes more than $15 billion in annual gross merchandise value across more than 1,000 customers. It has completed eight acquisitions to date, including the purchases of Ware2Go from UPS in 2025, Shipwire from CEVA Logistics in early 2026, and Pitney Bowes' e-commerce fulfillment operation. Alongside the funding, Stord announced the launch of Stord Labs, a facility designed to test robotics and automation systems before deploying them across the warehouse network. Henry said the company is working with more than five robotics vendors but did not name them. The goal is to use AI and robotics to streamline order handling, reduce costs, and push delivery speeds closer to what Amazon offers its Prime members. The timing reflects a broader shift in how smaller retailers think about logistics. Amazon delivered 30-minute service to dozens of US cities in May through its new Amazon Now programme. It deployed its millionth warehouse robot in 2025. Its North American retail margin hit 7 per cent in the most recent quarter, a figure once considered impossible for a low-margin e-commerce business. For independent brands, the gap between their delivery capabilities and Amazon's is widening, not closing. Stord's approach is to build a shared logistics layer that aggregates the kind of warehouse density, software integration, and AI-driven inventory management that only the largest retailers can afford on their own. The model positions Stord as an alternative to either surrendering to Amazon's marketplace, where brands give up customer data, pricing control, and margin, or attempting to build their own fulfilment operation from scratch. Henry and co-founder Jacob Boudreau started Stord while students at Georgia Tech through the university's CREATE-X programme. The company reached unicorn status in 2021 with a $90 million Series D led by Kleiner Perkins, survived the subsequent venture funding winter, and has now raised three consecutive rounds of $90 million or more. The investor lineup signals confidence in the category. Founders Fund, which recently closed a $6 billion fund after burning through $4.6 billion in under a year on bets including Anthropic and Anduril, participated alongside Kleiner Perkins, which raised $3.5 billion for AI-focused funds in March. Both are making large bets on AI infrastructure across industries, and logistics is one of the sectors where AI investment is translating into measurable operational gains. The challenge for Stord is execution at scale. Operating nearly 100 warehouses while integrating acquisitions, rolling out robotics across facilities, and maintaining the delivery speed that justifies a $3 billion valuation is operationally complex. Shopify tried to build its own logistics network and ended up selling the operation to Flexport in 2023 after concluding it could not compete with dedicated fulfilment providers. But the market opportunity is real. Amazon controls roughly 40 per cent of US e-commerce. The other 60 per cent is served by brands that overwhelmingly lack the infrastructure to offer comparable delivery speeds. If Stord can close that gap, even partially, the $3 billion valuation may look like a discount.

Logistics startup Stord raises $250 million at $3 billion valuation

Stord, a logistics startup, has secured nearly $250 million in funding, valuing the company at $3 billion. This investment underscores confidence in technology platforms empowering independent brands. Stord also launched Stord Labs to research AI and robotics for warehouse improvements. The company's valuation has doubled in a year, reflecting significant revenue growth. Logistics startup Stord said on Tuesday it raised nearly $250 million in a late-stage funding round at a $3 billion valuation, and launched Stord Labs to advance physical intelligence. The funding highlights investor confidence in platforms that provide independent brands with the technological infrastructure needed to challenge ⁠the dominance ⁠of e-commerce giants such as Amazon. Stord Labs will serve as a research base for the company to test agentic AI, robotics and automation against live fulfillment data to improve warehouse operations. The Series F funding round was led by existing investors and included Strike ⁠Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Franklin Templeton and Baillie Gifford among others. The company's valuation has doubled from $1.5 billion ⁠a year ago, when Stord had raised around $200 million in its Series E funding round. The startup said its revenue has grown more than tenfold over the past four years, with its software business growing faster than overall operations, driven by increasing adoption of its AI and e-commerce fulfillment platform. Atlanta-based Stord provides an AI-powered supply chain platform that combines logistics such as warehousing and fulfillment with enterprise software. CEO and founder Sean ⁠Henry said Stord offers independent brands an integrated commerce platform that combines fulfillment, software and AI to deliver a customer experience that rivals Amazon Prime. Stord operates over 100 fulfillment locations and brands such as nutrition firm AG1, travel and lifestyle company Monos and apparel firm True Classic use its platform for their direct consumer relationships.

Stord Scores $250 Million In Backing From Kleiner Perkins, Strike

Stord has closed a $250 million Series F at a $3 billion valuation and rolled out Stord Labs, a new robotics and AI initiative. Stord's founder and CEO, Sean Henry, said the company aims to help brands match the delivery experience consumers associate with Amazon Prime. Stord Labs, based in Atlanta, tests agentic AI, robotics, and advanced automation. Stord increased revenue nearly tenfold over the past four years. It pointed to 2023 as an inflection point that came roughly six months after the launch of ChatGPT. The company's software business tripled in 2025 and is "expanding faster than the broader AI industry." In Q1 2026 new bookings more than doubled from the prior quarter, the company noted. Stord is also accustomed to doing deals. So far, it has completed eight acquisitions and employs more than 4,000 employees. Kleiner Perkins first backed Stord in 2019. Photo Courtesy: Ken stocker on Shutterstock.com This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Stord Raises $250 Million to Deploy Physical AI Across Fulfillment Network | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. The round valued the company at $3 billion, Stord said in a Monday (May 26) press release. That figure is up from the $1.5 billion valuation the company achieved in a May 2025 Series E round in which it raised $200 million. Stord also announced in the Monday press release that it created Stord Labs, a dedicated environment in the company's headquarters in which Stord will advance physical AI and robotics to help brands compete. "Our vertical integration and scaled network create compounding advantages that deliver better, faster, cheaper outcomes with every order we touch," Stord founder and CEO Sean Henry said in the release. "As AI and physical intelligence advance across our platform, that advantage for our customers is rapidly accelerating." Stord has more than 1,000 customers, has nearly 100 fulfillment locations worldwide, and processes over $15 billion in gross merchandise value each year, according to the release. John Lagomarsino, co-founder and managing partner of Strike Capital, one of the investors in the Series F round, said in the release that Stord's commerce infrastructure turns fulfillment into a competitive advantage. "We believe the rise of agentic purchasing will increasingly favor platforms where software and physical operations are deeply integrated," Lagomarsino said. "Stord is building that infrastructure." Ilya Fushman, partner at Kleiner Perkins, another investor in the round, said in the release: "We believed in that vision when Kleiner Perkins first backed Stord in 2019, and our conviction has only grown as Stord turns fulfillment into a source of speed, clarity and customer trust." Stord announced in January that it acquired Shipwire, the AI fulfillment subsidiary of CEVA Logistics, to expand its global logistics footprint and strengthen its technology platform. The company said the move added 12 fulfillment locations to its network, gave it a stronger presence in the European Union and the United Kingdom, and provided it with access to CEVA Logistics' global warehouse network spanning more than 170 countries through Shipwire's existing agreements.