Today's Pickup: Seattle-Based Shipium Lands $2M Seed Round

Good day,

Seattle-based logistics startup  Shipium raised a $2 million seed round led by PSL Ventures, the venture arm of Seattle startup studio Pioneer Square Labs, GeekWire reported.

Founded by two ex-Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN employees, one of whom also worked at Zulily, the startup is working on pilots in the direct-to-consumer fashion apparel segment. Another potential customer is a large consumer electronics company.

Shipium's mission, according to its website, is to make two-day shipping available to all retailers.

The startup joins a growing number of logistics companies in Seattle, including Flexe, and, of course, Convoy.

Did you know?

Since the imposition of U.S. tariffs on crystalline silicon photovoltaic solar cell imports in 2018, 62,000 Americans have either lost their jobs or were never hired.

Source:  Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), via FreightWaves

Quotable:

"I've got five weeks to make my annual salary."

–Greg Smith, owner of Molalla Christmas Tree Farms in Molalla, Oregon, via FreightWaves

In other news

Waymo robotaxi app hits the App Store

One year after launching its Waymo One self-driving car service in the Phoenix area, the company is launching an app on iOS. (TechCrunch)

Cars and solar power systems Tesla's ‘two biggest priorities'

An internal email Elon Musk sent to Tesla Inc TSLA employees identifies car and solar power system sales as the startup's two biggest year-end priorities. (Electrek)

California Air Resources Board officially limits rebates on electric cars in California

The Board cut rebates for cars that cost more than $60,000, removed plug-in hybrids with a low range and now allows only one rebate per person in their lifetime. (CaliforniaGlobe)

Ballard Power Systems  announces a purchase order from Van Hool, a bus OEM headquartered in Belgium

The 20 fuel cell modules will power buses in Groningen, the Netherlands. (PRNewswire)

Final thoughts,

Uber Technologies Inc UBER has released a wide-ranging safety report stating that more than 3,045 people were sexually assaulted while on Uber rides in the U.S. last year and nine were murdered, the New York Times reported. In almost half the sexual assault cases, the passenger, not the driver, was the perpetrator. Uber provided 1.3 billion rides in the United States last year, the company said.

Hammer down, everyone!

Image Sourced from Pixabay