Zonos Raises $69 Million in Southern Utah’s Largest Series A Investment

By Elainna Ciaramella

On top of a mesa in St. George, Utah, with breathtaking red rock views lies Tech Ridge, a generational redevelopment project that’s attracting new and expanding technology companies to Washington County—companies like Zonos, a Utahgrown SaaS company founded by CEO Clint Reid, that makes calculating the shipping costs and fees of international transactions accurate and painless. On September 15, 2021, Zonos announced a Series A $69 million investment led by Silversmith Capital Partners, a growth equity firm based in Boston. Also participating in the round were individual investors Eric Rea, co-founder and CEO of Podium, and Aaron Skonnard, co-founder and CEO of Pluralsight. Todd MacLean, managing partner at Silversmith Capital Partners, who joined the Zonos board of directors through the investment process, highlighted that Zonos is disrupting the global trade industry far away from any port and outside Silicon Valley. Merchants are trying to establish trust and brand loyalty through a smooth and seamless cross-border transaction. Zonos simplifies an extremely complex process—think calculating the duties, taxes, and fees on products from 190+ countries—ensuring the end user has a positive, transparent experience.

Elainna Ciaramella is originally from Los Angeles, California. She spent five years in Las Vegas before relocating to southern Utah for its natural beauty. As a journalist, she covers the topics of business, real estate, healthcare, travel, and tourism. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys spending time with her three daughters and strength training. What made Zonos so impressive to outside investors was that Zonos was restoring confidence in international trade. Zonos provides APIs, apps, and plugins to streamline crossborder sales, enabling companies to deliver accurate final prices to consumers who are making international purchases. Additionally, businesses can choose one or multiple shipping carriers, and they can give their customers this option at the time of purchase. “If you are transparent, you bring trust,” said Reid. “This was traditionally thought to be a shipping problem, but it’s really a technology problem.” Over a Decade of Bootstrapping Zonos has been a rising star in global trade for over a decade. The company was established as iGlobal in 2009 by Reid, who prior had been an international account executive at a worldwide shipping company. Reid regularly witnessed the frustration of global merchants who found the overly complicated process of filing paperwork and figuring out taxes to be both complex and expensive. Knowing there had to be a better way, Reid left his job to find it. His goal has always been to build the best and most accurate cross-border technology solution possible.

Zonos simplifies an extremely complex process—think calculating the duties, taxes, and fees on products from 190+ countries— ensuring the end user has a positive, transparent experience.

From the first order, placed from Tokyo, Japan, in September 2009, to the recent investment by Silversmith, Reid has made decisions that facilitated growth and built trust in the Zonos products, including pivoting to become a technologyfocused company in 2013 and moving the headquarters from Salt Lake City to St. George, Utah, in 2014. He did this all without taking a dime of outside investment. Reid has always been a strong believer that businesses should bootstrap for as long as they can. While some companies can bootstrap forever, for others, it’s a much shorter journey. Zonos was able to bootstrap for twelve years, but with the rapid growth of the company, Reid knew the timing was right. Reid vowed that if Zonos ever raised money, the funding would only come from a partner that shared his long-term vision. “I have never been dogmatic about bootstrapping but do admire companies that are able to bootstrap for a long time,” he explained. “I also admire companies that raise money early and build something incredible.” Zonos was able to bootstrap for over a decade. They were able to write their own story, make vital pivots, and move their company to St. George. But the company eventually reached the point where it needed to move faster to accommodate the rapid acceleration of global trade.

A Dynamic Global Economy and Explosive Growth Invited Investment

In recent years, regulations, Brexit, USMCA, and low-value tax laws have accelerated the growth of international commerce, but Zonos has been agile in its response. Since March of 2020, Zonos’ profitably tripled the size of their team, taking them from thirty-four to over one hundred employees to respond to the burgeoning cross-border ecommerce world. Even with the growing team, they needed to expand product development, worldwide team expansion, and go-to-market opportunities. In 2020, while visiting northern Utah, Reid had a conversation with Eric Rea, CEO of Podium. Rea asked Reid what he thought Zonos was worth. When Reid threw a number out, Rea said, “It is worth twice that amount.” Rea then asked his CFO, who also agreed that the company was worth double. Reid then called Austen Allred, CEO of Lambda School, for advice, and Allred said, “Let me send out a tweet.” Before long, Reid’s inbox was blowing up, and his executive assistant called Reid and asked, “What did you do?”

The Zonos cipher,

a symbol of cross-border transparency

really helps when you’re out raising funds for the first time. “If you’re bootstrapping your company, you typically don’t have those contacts,” he said. Reid admits that if he hadn’t taken the initiative to cold email several tech CEOs, he may have taken the first offer, and Allred’s tweet would never have been sent. Zonos received eight offers. “There is power in going long when you know you have something special and can find a way to stick it out,” noted Reid. “Zonos had several offers to choose from, but Silversmith Capital Partners believed in my vision and the company’s long-term potential.

It was fellow CEOs who told Reid to go do the roadshow—to talk to investors and shop around for offers. Reid explained that finding other people who have “been there, done that” “I’m not looking to move on to the next thing,” he added. “Zonos is here for good, and I am excited to continue to build the future of global trade technology.”