# Swapbox

A machine that replaces your post office and solves missed delivery

- Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/swapbox
- Entity ID: wefunder:company:8333
- Last updated: 2026-06-23T05:01:10Z
- Generated at: 2026-06-23T07:58:47Z

## Quick facts
- $12,000 yearly revenue from each Swapbox
- US manufacturer just signed on to finance all future kiosks
- Each Swapbox is profitable in 4 months
- 30% growth month-over-month
- 2 Billion missed deliveries every year in the U.S.

## Active fundraises
- wefunder:fundraise:5157: 506(b) successful (USD)

## FAQ
1. **Some ecommerce sites make money from the margin they make on shipping. Does this impact your ability to partner with them?**
   - No, our outbound functionality allows users to drop off a pre-printed label instead of having us generate one. That way sites that already give you shipping can still work with Swapbox, but we can take some of the burden away from the customer by providing packaging.
2. **Why do you think google shut down BufferBox**
   - Main reason is that their focus was on Google Shopping Express and they wanted to roll the talent of the BufferBox team into their primary product. In addition, we we're doing pretty well in SF and definitely stole some of their customers :)
3. **What kind of IP do you have?**
   - We have a lot of IP around the box designs. See question above.
4. **Can you tell us about the technology in the box itself?**
   - The Swapbox is currently in it's 4th generation. We've spent a lot of time getting the design and experience of that perfected. Some of our core IP is around the modularity of the box (we can add or remove columns in the field to meet demand forecasts), our own control board designs which improve the speed of communication to the doors and make it so users feel like the doors open instantaneously, and the software to power all of this. We're able to provide the highest level of customer servi...
5. **My apartment in Japan had boxes like these, and they were fantastic. Now I'm in Singapore, and the post office is starting to build these boxes. My only question is, why did it take the concept so long to come to the US???**
   - Good questions Brian. The main issue is was that each of the individual carriers tried to make their own boxes. However, since none of them control enough market share in the US, consumers had a terrible UX in that the box only worked for a certain portion of their packages. Nobody wants to go someplace for UPS, another for FedEx, and yet have another solution for USPS.

## Team
- Neel Murthy (CEO)
- Nitin Shantharam (CTO)

## Recent posts
- uBiome - news from this morning (2019-05-06T18:01:52Z)
- Update (2018-12-27T20:03:35Z)

## Q&A
- Q: I'm curious to know if there any new updates on your progress after Q1 of 2015? Have you increased the number of swap boxes or entered any new markets?
- Q: Does the shipper attempt to deliver first then go to swapbox or is this a delivery option for the customer at order time? Does revenue come from customer in an additional small charge for shipping/carrier from savings on redelivery/shipper as an extra convenience? Fine that the new boxes are financed but that does not mean cost of acquisition of new boxes is 0, in fact it increases the cost of each new box, can you explain a little more about your financial model that ends with boxes being profitable in 4 months? What is the long term debt that you will be accruing from the financing of the new boxes?
  - A: No, as it currently operates, the shipper doesn't first attempt to go directly to the user's house. That is a successful model that DHL operates in Germany, and one that we're working on implementing here. The revenue comes directly from consumers who pay $2 per received package. On average given Swapbox (that isn't extended in size) can service about 100-120 customers who each pay $8 a month for services. The financing portion does carry about an 18% extra fee over the 3 year lease, but comes with maintenance and because are partners are great at manufacturing, the amount we pay for the lease is <50% of what we paid upfront to make it ourselves.
- Q: "It is the Holy Grail. If the driver tries to deliver to the persons home and they're not available, the automatically dropoff at the closest Swapbox. " This would be so nice! I have another suggestion which surely you've thought of, but if not: enable the Swapbox service to sign for packages which require signatures. Obviously the legality of signing might be difficult, but so worth it. So many of my important packages are delayed because nobody is around to sign.
  - A: Signature tech is already in place, but definitely a good thought ;)
- Q: Swapbox is an excellent option to track missed packages through mail. Now one can make use of liteblue portal to get all benifits. Login to Liteblue from https://liteblueuspslogin.com/
- Q: I'm still looking for information, which I now believe is from a defunct company. Website is gone. No news on the Wefunder site or on twitter.
- Q: How do I get a swapbox? My packages get stolen where I live.
- Q: Who makes the swapbox? My company produces digital photography on glass and we would like to exchange idea's for a more attractive kiosk.
- Q: Hello, My name is miss laura, i saw your profile and it drew my attention to write to you. I would like you to communicate me through my e-mail address (sgt.lauraralph2@gmail.com) laura
- Q: Hello, My name is miss laura, i saw your profile and it drew my attention to write to you. I would like you to communicate me through my e-mail address (sgt.lauraralph2@gmail.com) laura
- Q: Hi, Do you plan to setup a franchise so people can lease or buy your Swapboxes and place them in an assigned territory?
- Q: It seems your market is still currently in San Francisco where you began. Since you have an angel investor presumably with deep pockets who agreed to finance as many kiosks as you can put up, why are you not entering the major markets of L.A., Chicago, NYC, etc. at a rapid pace? Is it a question of logistics and spreading yourselves too thin, or are you being prudently cautious?
- Q: Looking forward to seeing an update. I haven't seen any for awhile. Thanks.
- Q: Any progress updates?
- Q: Are you worried about people using it like a safe deposit box? If I send something to myself (signature required), and don't pick it up, how long does it sit there (insured)?
  - A: Not so far. Since we charge late fees, people tend not to use it in that way. If we see that trend arise, we can counter it by increasing late fees. Our average pickup time right now is ~8 hours. we give users 10 days before an item gets returned to sender. That is a very rare occurrence though due to the late fees (you still get charged if we return to sender).
- Q: How will you compete against Amazon Locker and others? Also, why would Google have cancelled Bufferbox if this was a profitable market? Thanks.
  - A: While to some extent, we do compete with Amazon Locker. For the most part we're just defining the same space. Amazon locker's will never work for other retailers because they're not agnostic, the retailer wouldn't want to give control of that last mile UX to Amazon, and Amazon is not very incentivized to open up their network. For that reason, we're positioned as the Amazon locker's for everyone else, though we still do a large portion of Amazon packages as well. The reasons why Google cancelled Bufferbox are quite complicated and I can't share all of them in a forum like this. However, the most straightforward answer is Bufferbox hadn't figured out the right model. For example, they paid retailers 4-5X what we do in many cases because they hadn't built out a model that worked for all parties involved and didn't use the same data driven processes and solutions that we present to retailers.