Six retail technology funding rounds you need to know about
RTIH rounds up the retail systems ventures who have been making waves with major investments, including TradeDepot, Serve Robotics, True Fit, and Sorted.
1. TradeDepot
Nigeria-based B2B e-commerce and embedded finance platform, TradeDepot, has raised $110 million in an equity and debt funding round.
This will support the delivery of buy now, pay later services to five million SME retailers and drive further expansion of its merchant platform across the continent.
The Series B equity round was led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), with participation from Novastar, Sahel Capital, CDC Group, Endeavor Catalyst and existing investors, Partech and MSA Capital.
The debt funding was headed up by Arcadia Funds.
2. Serve Robotics
Autonomous sidewalk delivery startup, Serve Robotics, has closed a $13 million seed funding round, with participation from Uber Technologies, Delivery Hero backed DX Ventures, 7-Eleven’s corporate venture arm, 7-Ventures, and Wavemaker Partners’ food automation focused venture studio Wavemaker Labs.
This extends Serve’s previous seed funding and also involves existing investors Neo, Western Technology Investment, and Scott Banister, among others.
The capital will be used to accelerate the company’s path to commercial scale, driving its fleet expansion, geographic growth, and continued product development.
3. Marketplacer
Australian retail technology company, Marketplacer, has secured $38 million in funding to boost its product suite, expand its partner programme, and accelerate US efforts.
The platform-as-a-service venture, which was established in 2016 and counts Mirakl as its major competitor, builds online marketplaces, with clients including Myer, BikeExchange, Metcash, FishBrain, Nokia, Surfstitch, Petstock, Providoor and Bob Jane T-Marts.
It has raised more than $85 million to date, with investors in the latest funding round including Acorn Capital, Ellerston Capital, Endeavor Asset Management, Lennox Capital Partners, Mirrabooka, OC Funds, Salesforce Ventures and SG Hiscock.
4. Sorted
Sorted, a UK-based startup that specialises in software for online checkouts, warehouses and shipping, has closed a $40 million Series C funding round and acquired Clicksit, an automated returns company.
5. WaffarX
WaffarX, a cashback shopping service in the MENA region, has completed a “multi-million dollar” financing round led by the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Lobby Capital.
The latter was an early investor in the US firm Ebates, which was sold to Rakuten in 2014, in what was Japan’s largest e-commerce deal at the time.
WaffarX will use the proceeds to expand its platform, drive user acquisition and enter new markets in the MENA region.
6. True Fit
True Fit, whose online platform is leveraged by apparel and footwear retailers to tackle the fit and size part of the shopper journey, has announced a $30 million funding round led by lead investor Georgian.
Georgian was joined by Jump Capital, Signal Peak Ventures, Intel Capital, and new investor Espresso.
True Fit, which to date has raised $55million in total, says that the cash will boost its expansion plans while powering “major innovations in customer experience and unrivalled data sets for 2022”.
