The problem
An island nation lives or dies by trade, and Japan’s trade desks still live by phone, fax, and spreadsheets. Customs clearance volumes rose roughly eightfold between 2016 and 2024 on e-commerce growth, while tariff shocks and Middle East disruptions made blind supply chains dangerous.
How it works
Shippio Platform centralises three things: automatic cargo and vessel tracking, communications between shippers, forwarders, and overseas offices, and trade-data analysis for management decisions. Critically, Shippio is not pure software — it holds Type 1 and Type 2 freight-forwarding licenses, IATA accreditation, and bought customs broker Kyowa Kaiun in 2022, so it executes the shipments it tracks. It has also joined government trade-DX initiatives as a platform provider.
Pain points
Containers you can’t see, document chains scattered across email threads, and freight bills reconciled weeks late.
Business model
Margin on executed forwarding and customs clearance, recurring platform fees for the DX software, and trade insurance via its Tokio Marine agency registration.
Challenges
The 2030 target — 30% of Japan’s arriving and departing cargo, ~5.4M TEU a year — demands continuous revenue doubling, M&A, and growing past 100 staff toward 300. Freight downturns compress forwarding spreads, and the transparency Shippio sells also lets customers bid it against rivals.
Funding
- Raised: ¥3.24B Series C in October 2025 (¥1.87B equity led by DNX Ventures with Suzuyo and New Commerce Ventures, plus ¥1.37B debt from Shoko Chukin, Japan Finance Corporation, Mizuho, MUFG, Resona and others), bringing cumulative funding to ~¥7B; earlier rounds include a ¥1.65B Series B in September 2022.
- Valuation: MISSING.
Latest — October 2025
On 30 October 2025 Shippio closed its ¥3.24 billion Series C to fund product development, customer expansion, and M&A toward handling 30% of Japan’s cargo by 2030, reporting ~20x net revenue, ~35x container volume, and ~8x platform users since its 2022 Series B.