The collapse of Australian shipping company Sendol has left customers and employees feeling “ghosted” while investors are angry and confused about what will happen next.

Sendle launched more than a decade ago and gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic by promoting itself as a cheap shipping option for small online retailers, including sellers on Shopify and Etsy.

The company has raised at least $70 million ($100 million) in private equity investments over the years to fund its business of connecting customers with couriers, according to Reuters data.

Sendol did not disclose customer numbers but claimed it drives billions of dollars in sales for retailers. The sudden suspension of shipments left many confused and many people voicing their displeasure on social media.

“We’re a little bit blindsided and ghosted,” Natasha Wilton, a jewelry designer and Sendol customer, told ABC News.

“It feels like a farewell.”

Wilton had been using Sendol for six years to ship packages to online shoppers across the country.

She had several packages worth more than $350 delivered to Sendol one Sunday afternoon this month when she received an email with the ominous subject line, “Important Notice.”

An email from Sendle Support dated January 11 said, “We regret to inform you that Sendle will be suspending all package pickup and delivery reservations effective immediately.”

Wilton spent the week worrying whether the package he sent for delivery would reach his customer and trying to get it back from the depot center so he could send it another way.

“None of us can contact Sendol,” Wilton said.

Diana Gilgolov also received the same email. Her new reusable straw brand had just gone viral on TikTok, and she had a bunch of packages ready to be delivered to Sendle.

She said her heart sank when she read the email.

”[I’ve got] I don’t know if I can get that money back. I tried to contact Sendol, but customer service is completely cut off, so there is no communication with small business owners. ”

Long-term support center staff retires

Australian employees at Cendre were told they had lost their jobs over the same weekend, two employees told ABC News on condition of anonymity.

It was not clear how many people were employed by Sendol Australia, and staff told the ABC there had been job cuts in recent years.

“Everyone is disappointed that it turned out this way,” one Australia-based employee told ABC News.

“There’s a lot of anger. There’s a lot of speculation about what went wrong.”

Overseas, at least 80 employees at Sendol’s call center in the Philippines face layoffs. This is because outsourcing company Zigzag Offshoring, which had partnered with the company, announced that it would be impossible to continue employing them.

“These are people with families, mortgages and financial responsibilities,” Zigzag Offshoring director Vince Dixon said last week.

“A lot of people have been working there for seven or eight years.”

So what was wrong with Sendol?

Sendle was founded in 2014 by former CSIRO executive James Chin Moody.

The company’s website describes itself as a “game changer” and “Australia’s first 100% carbon neutral delivery service”. Those who worked at Sendle viewed it as a technology company.

Sendol’s business model involved booking large quantities of work to companies that owned trucks and warehouses. They then sold these slots to customers and earned a profit.

Sendle’s website explains, “By unlocking networks and volumes typically available only to large companies, we are able to offer our customers the best prices.”

“We created the labels, the customers printed them themselves, put them on their packages, and brought them to the warehouse,” the anonymous employee explained.

Eventually, Sendol had thousands of warehouses across Australia. Its selling points were that it had an easy-to-use online interface that allowed retailers to track packages, and lower prices than Australia Post.

“Sendol was a lot cheaper,” Wilton told ABC News.

Several funding rounds have allowed the company to expand internationally in North America. Long-term backers have included Afterpay-related investment firm Touch Ventures and Australian business Federation.

The federation told ABC News that Sendol has “two wholesale/retail funds” and “several direct investments on behalf of wholesale investors.” He did not say how much money was poured into the failed business.

Last year, the federation supported Sendol’s merger with two U.S. companies, ACI Logistix and FirstMile, to form a new company called FastGroup, based in California.

“By combining the strengths of our three companies, we are redefining what is possible in logistics,” FastGroup’s new chief financial officer wrote in a post on LinkedIn about the merger.

But five months later, there were no more links to FastGroup’s website.

The federation accused ACI Logistix of providing inaccurate financial information during the merger process.

“Contrary to representations made to the federation during the due diligence process since the merger, it has been determined that ACI Logistix was in default of its financial obligations at the time of the merger,” it said.

“Subsequently, the combined company’s operating results were adversely affected by strained relationships with suppliers resulting from non-performance of payment obligations.”

Touch Ventures also wrote down its investment in Sendol to “nil” in December, telling the ASX that it had been “diluted as an investor in the company” since its last cash injection in 2023.

“Unfortunately, on Saturday, January 10, 2026, the Fast Group Board of Directors resolved to downsize the company,” the federation said.

Former Sendol employees and investors told ABC News they had more questions and believed the company was on a rocky trajectory before the merger.

“I’m not holding my breath” about getting back the money they put into the company, one investor said.

ABC News has not been able to contact Sendol’s founding CEO, James Chin Moody, or several other people who led the newly combined organization. A spokesperson for Mr Sendle did not respond to detailed questions from the ABC.

Two Sendol employees told ABC News last week that staff were paid on time and given notice of layoffs. Zigzag said call center staff in the Philippines will also be paid benefits in accordance with local law.

“You’ll never hear from them again,” said one Sendol employee.

“It feels like the end of the road,” added another Sendol investor.