The story of how Zonos became the AI operating system for cross-border trade

What followed was 12 years of bootstrapped persistence. No outside capital. No shortcuts. Just relentless focus on solving the hardest problems in cross-border trade.

The company relocated to St. George, Utah in 2014. Rebranded from iGlobal Stores to Zonos in 2018 — a name that would let them define the new category they were creating.

In September 2021, Zonos raised a $69 million Series A led by Silversmith Capital Partners — the largest Series A in Southern Utah history — their first outside equity after 12 years of building. Today, Zonos is the only platform selected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to power AI-driven trade compliance and tariff collection for the entire country.

The people building the future of cross-border trade.

International mail is not just commerce, it's connection. It's a grandmother in Toronto sending a birthday gift to her grandkids in Ohio. It's a first-generation entrepreneur in Manila reaching her first American customer. It's a family shipping belongings to a student abroad. When the U.S. eliminated the de minimis exemption in August 2025, that connection nearly broke. Postal operators around the world suspended U.S.-bound shipments because no infrastructure existed to comply with the new rules. Zonos built that infrastructure, in weeks, and kept mail moving for the millions of ordinary people who depend on it. The White House told us: "Zonos, you saved the mail." That wasn't about saving packages. It was about preserving a channel of human and economic connection that the global economy quietly runs on.

The deeper societal issue we address is access. Global trade has always favored those who can afford complexity: large enterprises with compliance departments, brokers, and legal teams. Small businesses and individuals were priced out or scared off. Our innovations collapse that barrier. With the Prepay app, anyone can snap a photo of what they're shipping and have AI generate the customs data, calculate the duties, and handle payment in seconds, with no broker, no expertise, no gatekeeper. A craftsperson in rural Canada now has the same compliance capability as a Fortune 500 retailer. When compliance becomes accessible, global markets open to everyone, and the economic opportunity of cross-border trade stops being reserved for the biggest players.

Our technology also strengthens the systems societies rely on. Undervalued shipments, misdeclared goods, and vague manifests cost governments billions in lost tariff revenue and create genuine security blind spots at borders. Zonos AI closes those gaps: detecting undervaluation, validating country of origin, screening against denied-party lists, and giving customs agencies accurate data on what's actually crossing their borders. U.S. Customs and Border Protection selected Zonos to help modernize tariff classification and duty collection, meaning our innovations now directly protect public revenue and border security, not just private commerce. Our compliance tools also support product safety: Agency Check helps ensure goods subject to Consumer Product Safety Commission requirements are properly certified before they reach American homes.

Finally, we address a quieter issue: fairness to consumers. For years, international shoppers were ambushed by surprise duties at their door: a fee they never agreed to, on a package they'd already paid for. Refused deliveries, wasted shipping, and eroded trust were the norm. By calculating the full landed cost transparently at checkout, Zonos ensures people know exactly what they'll pay before they buy. Transparency in trade sounds technical, but it's ultimately about trust, and trust is what allows commerce between strangers across borders to work at all.

Trade policy will keep shifting. Our commitment is that when it does, the people with the least power to absorb the disruption (small businesses, families, individual shippers) are the ones our technology protects first.