Samarkand Global

Samarkand Group was founded in 2016 in London to create a digital Silk Road that connects international brands with China, the world’s largest eCommerce market.

The co-founders of Samarkand are David Hampstead and Simon Smiley. They are friends and business partners and have spent more than 12 years together in technology entrepreneurship. They are so united in their vision for Samarkand that people often joke that they finish each other's sentences.

What is unique to learn about Samarkand as a new person joining the team is the level of loyalty and commitment of everyone on board. After years in business, David and Simon have many longstanding colleagues and friends who believe in them and have joined the team as the Company has grown. In addition to this, there is a really diverse pool of new talent that continues to make the business stronger.

This surrounding group of intelligent, fun and trusted peers is a testament to the founders and indicative of the culture and positive strides the company as a whole continues to make.

Technology at Samarkand

Nomad, our proprietary technology platform, integrates across all touchpoints required for eCommerce in China. Its end-to-end solutions across technology, operations, and analytics enable the direct-to-consumer experience of the future for brands and retailers of all sizes.

We aim to become leaders in the Chinese cross-border eCommerce technology space, building modern tech solutions to provide domestic businesses with the services they need to operate in China. Working with serverless cloud functions, docker based CD pipelines and a rapid release cycle we are constantly adopting new technologies to maintain high levels of innovation and productivity within the business.

Our proprietary software platform, Nomad, is at the core of delivering growth for our own brands and customers alike, covering commerce, distribution, logistics, payments, and analytics.