Shipbeat is a unified and developer-friendly API for shipping that instantly enables businesses to do shipments online. They offer multi-carrier management for e-commerce companies via a simple shipping API. The shipbeat shipping API unites all relevant local, regional and global delivery partners as well as traditional shipping carriers. Only one shipping integration is necessary to access…

How big is the same-delivery market and how fast is it growing? The folks at BI Intelligence published a report, and they estimate that about $100 million of merchandise will be ordered via same-day delivery in 2014, generating about $20 million in shipping fees (the analysis covers just 20 U.S. cities). By 2018, they predict that…

From Swift Navigation's press release: Swift Navigation, a San Francisco-based startup building centimeter-accurate GPS technology, announced today that it has raised a $2.6 million seed round led by First Round, with participation from Fall Line Capital, Felicis Ventures, Kal Vepuri, Lemnos Labs, Qualcomm Incorporated, through its venture capital group, Qualcomm Ventures, and VegasTechFund. Swift Navigation…

    According to Angela Shah, an Xconomy editor, Amazon makes it easy to buy a lot of stuff. Gone wants to bring that ease to getting rid of it all. Today, the Austin, TX-based startup has unveiled its app designed to help consumers sell unwanted items around the house. The service is available in Austin…

The major productivity problem today in West Coast ports is locating enough chassis's to haul containers out of the ports to rail yards or other facilities. Here is a description of the problem. This is a real supply chain problem that needs a solution. Hopefully, some entrepreneurs can figure one out.

Boxed, a start up that sells bulk-sized snacks, toiletries and other everyday goods through a mobile app and delivers them to a customer’s door, has raised a $6.5 million Series A investment, led by Greycroft, First Round Capital and Signia Venture Partners. Boxed aims to appeal to shoppers who like the discounts offered by warehouse clubs such…

Well, not Webvan so far, or so I asked in a previous post… According to BizJournals, California-based same-day grocery delivery service Instacart, which has a growing presence in the Boston area, has raised $44 million in Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz as it works to expand its service into new markets across the U.S. Existing investors Sequoia…

A couple of intersing start ups to keep our eyes on from the current TechStars Austin class:   Pivot Freight: A rate comparison engine and discount broker for Less than Truckload (LTL) freight shipping   Burpy: A service to deliver same-day groceries and home essentials from a variety of local stores.

  It’s a big hassle for technologically savvy businesses to integrate with antiquated shipping services like UPS, USPS, and FedEx. EasyPost removes the friction by sitting between developers and the shippers, and offering a RESTful JSON API to connect them. This lets developers access the best shipping rates, tracking information and more. It charges $0.05 per shipping…

According to numerous press releases, Amazon has announced that it is about to launch a total of 1,200 parcel pick-up points at locations across Spain. On making their online purchase, customers will be able to choose by marking on a pull-down bar whether to have their purchase delivered to a chosen address, or pick up their goods…