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§ Private Profile · Bluffdale, USA
Zonos is a company.
Zonos has raised $69.0M across 1 funding round.
Key people at Zonos.
Zonos has raised $69.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Zonos develops a comprehensive platform designed to streamline cross-border e-commerce operations. The company provides a robust operating system for international trade, offering solutions that include real-time duty and tax calculations, tariff classification, and compliance infrastructure. Its technology integrates with existing e-commerce systems, enabling merchants to manage the complexities of global shipping and customs regulations efficiently.
Clint Reid founded Zonos in 2009, driven by the insight that international online sales were unnecessarily complicated by varying duties, taxes, and trade regulations. He envisioned a system that could remove these barriers, allowing businesses of all sizes to participate in global commerce without encountering significant friction. This foundational idea aimed to democratize access to the international market for online retailers.
The company primarily serves online retailers and businesses looking to expand their sales globally, providing tools that simplify the customer experience for international shoppers. Zonos’s long-term vision centers on making global trade universally accessible and transparent, transforming the complex landscape of international commerce into an effortless extension of domestic sales for its users.
Key people at Zonos.
Zonos has raised $69.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $69.0M Series A in September 2021.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2021 | $69M Series A | Silversmith Capital Partners | Bain Capital Ventures, Draper Associates, Hack VC, Magma Partners, MissionOG, Upload Ventures, Dennis Steele, Greg Butterfield, Aaron Skonnard, Austen Allred, David Elkington, Eric REA, Josh James | Announced |
# High-Level Overview
Zonos is a cross-border commerce technology company that simplifies international ecommerce by automating the complex logistics of selling globally.[1][2] Founded in 2009 and headquartered in St. George, Utah, the company provides APIs, apps, and plugins that enable merchants to accurately calculate duties, taxes, and landed costs while managing compliance across 200+ countries.[2][3]
The company serves ecommerce merchants, logistics providers, online marketplaces, and trade organizations seeking to expand internationally.[3] Zonos solves a critical problem: historically, global commerce platforms bundled duty and tax calculations exclusively with their own shipping solutions, limiting merchant flexibility and transparency.[3] Instead, Zonos created a shipping carrier-agnostic approach, allowing businesses to choose any carrier while still accessing accurate cross-border pricing and compliance data.[3] The company has demonstrated strong growth momentum, doubling in size annually since inception and now serving over 1,500 customers worldwide while processing millions of landed cost quotes daily.[5]
# Origin Story
Clint Reid founded Zonos after spending five years in international sales roles at logistics giants DHL and UPS, where he witnessed firsthand the friction and complexity merchants faced when selling across borders.[1] Rather than remaining in the logistics industry, Reid bootstrapped Zonos from his basement in 2009, applying his domain expertise to build technology solutions instead of relying on traditional shipping partnerships.[1]
The company remained privately funded and bootstrapped for over a decade, a testament to both the strength of its product-market fit and Reid's conviction in the business model. In 2021—twelve years after founding—Zonos raised its first institutional capital: a $69 million Series A led by Silversmith Capital Partners, which also included individual investors Eric Rea (CEO of Podium) and Aaron Skonnard (co-founder of Pluralsight).[5] This milestone enabled the company to accelerate product development and expand globally, opening offices in Europe and Asia-Pacific while growing from 30 employees to over 100 in just eighteen months.[5]
# Core Differentiators
# Role in the Broader Tech Landscape
Zonos operates at the intersection of two powerful trends: the explosive growth of global ecommerce and the increasing complexity of cross-border regulations. Global cross-border ecommerce exceeded $400 billion in 2018 and continues growing at twice the rate of domestic ecommerce.[5] As countries implement stricter trade policies and tariff regimes, the need for transparent, automated compliance infrastructure has become critical.
The company's success reflects a broader shift in B2B SaaS toward horizontal infrastructure platforms that solve domain-specific problems without vendor lock-in. By refusing to bundle shipping with calculations, Zonos positioned itself as a neutral platform layer—similar to how payment processors like Stripe operate independently of banking relationships. This approach aligns with merchant preferences for flexibility and has made Zonos a natural integration point across the ecommerce ecosystem.
Additionally, Zonos exemplifies the "solve problems you've lived" founder archetype that resonates with modern venture capital, particularly firms like Silversmith that back entrepreneurs with deep domain expertise rather than just market intuition.[1]
# Quick Take & Future Outlook
Zonos is positioned to become the foundational infrastructure layer for global commerce, much as Stripe did for payments. The company's carrier-agnostic model, combined with its proprietary trade data, creates defensible competitive advantages as regulatory complexity increases worldwide.
Looking ahead, several forces will shape Zonos' trajectory: rising protectionism and tariff volatility will drive demand for accurate compliance automation; the continued shift toward direct-to-consumer ecommerce will expand the addressable market; and expansion into Europe and Asia-Pacific opens new geographies where cross-border friction remains high. The company's ability to maintain its neutral platform position—resisting pressure to vertically integrate shipping or payments—will be critical to its long-term influence.
From a bootstrapped basement operation to a market leader serving thousands of global merchants, Zonos demonstrates that solving real problems with deep expertise can build enduring value without early-stage dilution. As global trade becomes increasingly digital and regulated, Zonos' mission to "create trust in global trade" through technology will likely become more essential, not less.[6]
Zonos has raised $69.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Zonos's investors include Silversmith Capital Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Draper Associates, Hack VC, Magma Partners, MissionOG, Upload Ventures, Dennis Steele, greg butterfield, Aaron Skonnard, Austen Allred, David Elkington.
