Slikk, a cross-border e-commerce enablement startup, has just raised a $10 million funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners and Lightspeed, marking a major milestone in its mission to reimagine how global brands operate and scale in today’s increasingly borderless digital retail landscape.

Founded by Akshay Gulati, Slikk was born out of the operational chaos brands face when expanding into international markets. From managing taxes and logistics to handling compliance, FX, and multi-country inventory, the friction is real. And that’s where Slikk steps in - with a platform built to simplify, automate, and supercharge international ecommerce operations.

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The Problem: International Expansion Is a Nightmare for DTC Brands

For fast-growing direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands and e-commerce merchants, expanding globally means navigating a minefield of fragmented logistics, taxation, payment methods, customs laws, and compliance regimes.

Even for well-capitalized startups, going global often means juggling dozens of third-party tools, agencies, and consultants. The result? High operational cost, slower shipping, compliance risk, and poor customer experience.

Slikk’s platform turns this fragmented mess into a single unified command center, offering:

• Cross-border logistics orchestration
  
• Localized tax and compliance workflows
  
• Multi-currency FX handling
  
• Global payment gateways
  
• Real-time shipping and customs tracking
  

“Brands want to go global, but their stacks aren't built for it,” said founder Akshay Gulati, who previously scaled global logistics with Delhivery and led cross-border strategy at Amazon. “We’re building the infrastructure that modern DTC brands need to act global, sell local, and scale fast.”

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One Unified Platform to Globalize Your Brand

Slikk’s tech is purpose-built to eliminate the manual, error-prone layers of international operations and replace them with intuitive automation. Once plugged into a brand’s existing stack (Shopify, WooCommerce, ERP, etc.), the system provides a single dashboard for handling all global order flows.

It also provides country-specific intelligence - like customs classifications, duty calculators, and regulatory documentation templates - to help avoid delays and compliance issues.

What sets Slikk apart from generic shipping tools is its vertical integration across payments, fulfillment, tax, and support. It’s not just another shipping aggregator - it’s an end-to-end global operating system.

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Founder’s Playbook: Deep Ops + Global Playbooks Win

Akshay’s personal blueprint is a masterclass for founders tackling operationally intensive categories: build with deep industry empathy, and productize operational expertise. Slikk was shaped not just by software developers, but former supply chain heads, customs experts, and finance leads who’ve handled the real-world pain of global commerce.

Founders tackling similar “unsexy ops” categories should consider hiring domain-heavy founding teams, not just tech generalists. You need people who know what breaks when the port is delayed, when tax codes shift, and when carriers go offline. These aren’t bugs - they’re daily operations. And they require platforms built on real operational memory.

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Traction: Global DTC Momentum

Slikk is already powering global operations for more than 40 DTC brands, helping them ship to over 70 countries. The platform’s automation has helped customers:

• Cut cross-border order processing time by 40%
  
• Lower landed costs by up to 18%
  
• Improve first-attempt delivery rates in new markets
  

Their clients include fast-scaling brands in apparel, wellness, consumer electronics, and home goods - many of whom struggled with logistics fatigue before Slikk unified their stack.

With a growing list of repeat users and glowing testimonials, Slikk is now aiming to build the Stripe for cross-border ecommerce.

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Investors Back the Future of Frictionless Global Commerce

This round was led by Nexus Venture Partners and Lightspeed, two of the most active VC firms in logistics tech, commerce infrastructure, and operational SaaS. Their confidence underscores the timing, traction, and total addressable market (TAM) opportunity in this space.

Nexus Venture Partners has deep experience in building operational platforms across sectors, while Lightspeed continues to double down on high-growth commerce infrastructure plays.

With fresh capital, Slikk will be focusing on:

• Scaling their engineering and compliance team
  
• Expanding into new markets including LATAM and MENA
  
• Launching AI-powered customs risk detection
  
• Opening up APIs for 3PLs and global payment partners
  

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The Rise of Smart Logistics: Market Outlook

The demand for smarter logistics infrastructure is accelerating. According to McKinsey, global supply chain disruptions cost e-commerce brands $1.8 trillion annually. Meanwhile, Gartner predicts that by 2027, over 60% of e-commerce businesses will adopt real-time supply chain orchestration tools, up from just 20% today.

Additional industry stats:

• Cross-border e-commerce will account for 38% of all online retail by 2026 (eMarketer)
  
• Warehouse automation is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.2%, reaching $45 billion by 2029 (ResearchAndMarkets)
  
• More than 70% of online shoppers now expect same-day or next-day delivery, even across regions (PwC)
  
• Reverse logistics and returns management, a key pain point, costs retailers up to 21% of their gross sales  -  another area Slikk is optimizing for
  

As consumers push for speed, flexibility, and transparency, brands need fulfillment tech that scales with demand  -  not adds drag.

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Backed by Investors Betting on Global Commerce Infrastructure

The $10 million funding round was led by Nexus Venture Partners and Lightspeed, two firms with deep roots in logistics, operational SaaS, and global fintech. Their investments in companies like Delhivery, Razorpay, and Udaan reflect a shared belief in building deep tech for hard operational problems - not just marketplace fluff.

With the new capital, Slikk plans to:

• Expand its product into LATAM, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East
  
• Hire compliance engineers and logistics architects
  
• Launch AI-powered customs risk engines
  
• Develop open APIs for global 3PL and B2B merchant integrations
  

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Industry Outlook: Massive, But Still Fragmented

The cross-border ecommerce market is expected to reach $7.9 trillion by 2030, growing at over 26% CAGR, per Grand View Research. Despite this explosion, infrastructure lags far behind. Over 70% of brands cite cross-border operations as the biggest blocker to growth (Shopify, 2024).

And while tools like ShipBob or Flexport solve logistics pieces, no platform yet owns the complete global ops stack. That’s the TAM Slikk is chasing - and why investors are placing bets.