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Buy&Ship Raises $12 Million to Expand Cross-Border Shopping Platform Across Asia and North America
Buy&Ship, an Asia-Pacific cross-border e-commerce startup, announced on the 5th that it has completed the first phase of its Series C funding, raising $12 million. New investors include Mitsubishi Logistics’ venture arm, DLK Advisory, and MemeStrategy, the Hong Kong-listed operator of meme platform 9GAG.
Founded in Hong Kong in 2014, Buy&Ship now has its engineering team based in Taiwan and is focused on solving the problem of high prices and limited access for consumers shopping across borders.
In a nutshell, after consumers make purchases through Buy&Ship, the company handles order placement on major e-commerce sites, then delivers the products to customers via its own warehousing and logistics network. The key advantage is that Buy&Ship does not charge a purchasing commission. Compared to buying directly, customers save an average of 30 percent, while Buy&Ship generates revenue primarily from shipping fees.
Co-founder and CEO Sheldon Lee explained that this new funding will help accelerate Buy&Ship’s AI-driven automation, as well as expand their reach in Asian and North American markets. Interestingly, part of their strategy is tied to the booming “blind box economy” and also involves their new investor, MemeStrategy.
Japanese Anime Craze Fuels Growth in North America
The story begins with an $80,000 Pokémon card. Lee recalls receiving a call from 9GAG CEO Ray Chan, concerned that Buy&Ship’s shipping insurance wasn’t enough to cover the high-value shipment, insisting it arrive safely. This incident led Lee to discover interesting patterns in Buy&Ship’s backend data.
In 2025, growth in Singapore and Taiwan outpaced all other regions, at 100 percent and 60 percent respectively. The hottest-selling products? Japanese goods. “Taiwanese consumers shop in Japan three times as often as Hong Kongers,” Lee said. That’s why Buy&Ship is focusing on Taiwan and Singapore, with plans to capitalize on the blind box trend.
Lee noted that the anime merchandise economy is booming across Asia, and strong growth has prompted Buy&Ship to use some of the new funding for mergers and acquisitions in Taiwan, Singapore, and the Philippines, aiming to capture more market share.
Meanwhile, Japanese anime IP is sweeping the US market. Netflix’s live-action adaptation of “One Piece” and the release of “Demon Slayer” have sparked viewing frenzies, but American retailers often lack the related merchandise. “Demon Slayer did great at the US box office, but you couldn’t find merchandise. Even if you could, prices on eBay are three times higher than in Japan,” Lee said. This gap between supply and demand is exactly where Buy&Ship sees its opportunity.
By the second half of 2026, Buy&Ship plans to leverage the supply chain strength of new investor Mitsubishi Logistics to enter the US market, specializing in helping Americans purchase authentic Japanese products.
Yuko Okutani, general manager of corporate planning at Mitsubishi Logistics, said global demand for Japanese goods has continued to grow, and the company hopes to use its worldwide logistics network to boost Buy&Ship’s value.
Can AI Agents Replace Cross-Border Shopping Services?
Cross-border purchasing has always been a staple of global commerce, but as AI agents become more advanced, could they disrupt Buy&Ship’s business model?
Sheldon Lee sees it differently. After Buy&Ship’s Series B, the company invested heavily in automation—deploying AGVs (automated guided vehicles) to cut operational costs by 30 percent. Now, Buy&Ship is taking automation further, moving toward a full AI-driven “agent commerce” model.
Lee pointed out that Gen Z’s search habits are shifting. Forty-three percent of searches now use natural language questions like “Where can I buy the best sneakers?” instead of just keywords. That’s why Buy&Ship is developing an “AI Discovery Engine” powered by large language models (LLMs). AI now helps analyze project data and database structures, boosting the analytics team’s productivity by five times. For marketing, AI optimizes URLs for better SEO, and on the customer service side, it breaks down language barriers, allowing Taiwanese support teams to seamlessly serve Thai-speaking customers.
Currently, Buy&Ship has over three million registered users worldwide. Its deep integration with Japan’s largest C2C platform, Mercari, has enabled its purchasing business to double revenue year over year. The company will continue to focus on Japan’s outbound shipping market and is considering a future listing on the Japanese stock exchange.
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