Within a year of launching, Sendle was being challenged by the company it set out to beat.
In 2015 Australia Post filed a trademark dispute against the startup's slogan, 'Post without the office'. A national monopoly against a team of founders in Sydney: James Moody, Sean Geoghegan and Craig Davis. The ruling did not come until 2017, and it went Sendle's way.
Federation Asset Management, Sendle's key investor, said the partner was not current on its financial obligations at the time of the merger.
The pitch behind the slogan was simple. Small online sellers hated the post office queue and the price gap between their parcels and a big retailer's. Sendle offered pickup from the door, flat prices and, from 2015, a claim to be Australia's first carbon neutral delivery service. By 2016 it had passed 100 million kilometres and won a Telstra Business Award for new business in New South Wales.
Then it widened the net. A DHL eCommerce partnership in 2017 opened international sending, and plug-ins for eBay, Shopify, WooCommerce and Xero put it where sellers already worked. It entered the United States in 2019 and Canada in 2022. Across rounds from A$5 million in 2016 to A$45 million in 2021, and a further A$16 million in 2024, it raised about A$100 million.
The ending was fast. In 2025 Sendle merged into a new group, FAST Group, with the US firms ACI Logistix and FastMile. In December 2025 an investor fund suspended redemptions, citing significant deficiencies in ACI Logistix's financial statements. Federation Asset Management, Sendle's key investor, said the partner was not current on its financial obligations at the time of the merger. In January 2026 Sendle halted bookings in Australia and Canada. In February it went into creditors' voluntary liquidation. Moody did not respond to press requests for comment.
In July 2026 McKenna Worldwide bought the brand, trademark and domain, though not the company or its debts, and the website came back in October.
The lesson is uncomfortable. Sendle won the fight it started with a monopoly and survived years of competition. What it could not control was the quality of a merger partner's books. For a founder, the company you merge with becomes your risk, and due diligence is worth more than the headline growth story.