Ten stand out retail technology funding rounds
RTIH rounds up the retail systems ventures who have been making waves with major investments, including Mirakl, Mytraffic, Moon, Optimove and Flieber.
1. Boulevard
UK-based online marketplace and tech startup, Boulevard, has closed a £2.2 million seed investment from early and growth stage VC, Fuel Ventures.
Boulevard says that its uniqueness comes from its ability to do all the heavy lifting for brands wanting to be present on marketplaces like Amazon and OnBuy.
It helps independent businesses from quickly bringing products to market through to complete control over sales, inventory and fulfilment thanks to its bespoke supply chain platform, Eiger.
With Fuel’s £2.2 million investment, it plans to enter new markets, diversify its product categories and advance its Eiger system.
2. Mirakl
Mirakl, a French online marketplaces startup, has announced a $555 million Series E funding round, led by Silver Lake.
The values the nine-year-old venture at roughly $3.5 billion, up from its $1.5 billion valuation in a fundraise in September 2020.
Mirakl sells software to the likes of Carrefour and Best Buy, enabling them to operate online marketplaces that connect customers to merchants.
3. Hai Robotics
China-based warehouse robotics startup, Hai Robotics, has raised $200 million.
The funding comes from two separate equity rounds, a Series C and Series D.
The former was led by 5Y Capital with participation from Sequoia Capital China, Source Code Capital, VMS, Walden International and Scheme Capital.
The latter, the third capital infusion for the company in 2021, was headed up by Capital Today and also involved existing investors, including Sequoia Capital China, 5Y Capital, Source Code Capital, Legend Star, and 01VC.
The cash will be used to bolster its robot fleet through technological upgrades, and also for global expansion, optimising its supply chain management and hiring talent.
4. Mytraffic
Mytraffic, a startup that specialises in data insights for physical places, has raised €10 million with Alven as lead investor, alongside Kernel participating as an existing backer.
The company will use the funds to develop its product features and accelerate its growth in the UK, as well as France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Founded in 2016, Mytraffic provides insights on stores, malls, offices and logistic centres to retail, real estate, asset owners and cities through its SaaS platform.
The software allows for the likes of property owners setting the right rental price, retail networks selecting the best locations for expansion, and mall marketing managers choosing areas to activate their efforts.
5. Flieber
US-based startup Flieber has raised $12 million in a Series A round to continue developing its online inventory optimisation platform.
This was co-led by GGV Capital and Monashees. It brings Flieber’s total funding to $20 million since launching in 2019.
6. Moon
Moon, a US-based startup that enables crypto payments for e-commerce sites, has raised $2.1 million.
The funding round included participation from Fenbushi Capital, New Form Capital, SBX Capital, Manresa Ventures, Fulgur Ventures, Flight.VC, Bentaus, Block0, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee and Bill Murphy, the former CTO at Blackstone.
Moon CEO and Founder Ken Kruger told CoinDesk the company is using the cash to expand into a web and mobile application, making it possible to fund Moon cards with accounts from other exchanges (currently Moon only uses Coinbase).
It is also looking to expand its geographic reach, enable users to pay with stablecoins in addition to Bitcoin and expand its team.
Plans are also afoot to make its product available for merchants outside of the US.
7. Cover Genius
Cover Genius, an Australian embedded insurance startup that works with the likes of Booking,com and eBay, has secured £54 million in a Series C funding round led by Sompo Holdings Asia.
The cash will be used to expand its global insurance distribution platform and support new e-commerce, property, travel, mobility, auto, B2B and financial services partners.
8. Capital Float
Capital Float, an Amazon backed startup whose buy now, pay later service features on many online platforms in India, has bagged $50 million.
Lightrock India led the new investment which brings the seven-year-old firm’s all time raise to over $600 million.
Existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, Creation Investments as well as entrepreneurs David Vélez of Nubank, Kunal Shah of CRED and Amrish Rau of Pine Labs also participated in the new round.
9. Carrot
Carrot, a startup behind a plug-in that automatically categorises what you’ve added to a shopping cart, has closed a $5.5 million seed round.
Investors included Kindred Ventures, M13, Abstract, Designer Fund, Combine, Paris Hilton, Scott Belsky, Riverpark and Nextview.
10. Optimove
CRM marketing specialist, Optimove, has announced a $75 million investment led by Summit Partners.
The financing will support hiring and M&A, expansion of the company’s CRM marketing platform, and growth acceleration plans.
The company has also added Summit Partners’ Head of Europe, Han Sikkens, and Managing Director Steffan Peyer to its board of directors.
