NEW YORK, April 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mickey, a company focused on disrupting global trade and making it easier for small to midsize suppliers to export products globally, today announced that the company has raised $10MM in venture funding led by Lerer Hippeau and LightBank. With a goal of wiping out the global trade crisis, Mickey is modernizing the way products are sourced and exported out of the United States while opening up new markets for small to midsize suppliers. The Mickey platform replaces antiquated processes with state-of-the art technology that simplifies the process for traders, customers, and suppliers of hard goods. The company also announced that forest products expert Alex Meyers has joined the company as Director of Operations.
With an initial focus on forest products traders with other categories to come, the company will rebalance trade disparities across the globe while also revolutionizing an industry mired in antiquated processes. When COVID hit, it became clear to the company’s founders that a remarkable imbalance in trade exists with shipping containers coming into the US full and then leaving empty.
In fact, consumer products are the primary drivers of the trade deficit. In 2020, the U.S. imported $2.4 trillion in consumer goods, while only exporting $1.4 trillion. That created a $915.8 billion deficit and is the highest goods deficit on record. This is the core reason behind Mickey’s innovation and it’s already working. In 2020 Mickey shipped 2800 containers or 5600 TEUs that may have otherwise gone back empty.
“Many US citizens are unaware that a global trade crisis is impacting their daily lives,” said Alex. “America has been treading water around a critical trade problem without a solution for decades. Mickey helps tip the scales back in our favor. None of the actions we have taken as a nation, like the recently implemented trade tariffs, have materialized into a workable solution to reverse the trade deficit. And still America continues to try and win this fight with one hand tied behind its back. We believe Mickey is poised to help reverse this trend.”
With the Mickey platform, small and medium producers without access to working capital or logistical expertise now have the ability to reach a global customer base that was previously inaccessible. This will help boost American exports and create new employment opportunities across a wide range of commodity markets. The Mickey team believes that the potential upside to expanding America’s presence on the global stage is endless.
"We think of Mickey a bit like a reverse Alibaba. While Alibaba is an international B2B marketplace focused predominantly on manufactured products from Asian suppliers, Mickey is a international B2B marketplace focused primarily on raw materials coming from North America with the eventual goal of modernizing global trade,” said Graham Brown, Partner at Lerer Hippeau. “Today, there is no easy way for an independent lumber producer in Oregon to reach a buyer in Asia. Through its global B2B marketplace, Mickey is solving the matching, transacting, and exporting for raw materials producers in the U.S."
Mickey has experienced significant growth in a very short amount of time. The platform is the first to provide both buyer and seller a fully transparent view of the marketplace with each side increasing bandwidth while accessing new resources. The seller is provided the working capital, logistical expertise/support and access to Mickey's extensive customer base while the buyer has a continuous pipeline of quality suppliers that can be accessed and purchased from in one easy-to-use, organized platform.
About Mickey
Mickey is a company focused on disrupting global trade and making it easier for small to midsize suppliers to export products globally. With a goal of wiping out the global trade crisis, Mickey has built a platform that is revolutionizing the export marketplace with a state-of-the art digital platform that simplifies the process for traders, customers, and suppliers of hard goods. Learn more at http://www.mickeytrading.com.