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 Starship Technologies, Swiggy, Deliverect and Mention Me.
1. Mention Me
Mention Me, a referral engineering platform for e-commerce brands, has announced a $25 million Series B round, led by Octopus Ventures.
Lead investor from a prior round Eight Roads Ventures also participated. London-based Mention Me previously bagged $7 million in a Series A.
It will use the latest funds to hire new team members, expand into the US, invest in its partner network (which includes Klaviyo, TrustPilot, Ometria and SAP) and develop its product offering.
Puma, Pret a Manger, Bought By Many, Bloom & Wild and Asos are among the firm’s 450 strong client base.
2. Starship Technologies
US-based autonomous delivery services firm Starship Technologies has agreed a €50 million quasi-equity facility agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB), the lending arm of the European Union (EU).
The financing, which is supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments, has been facilitated via a venture loan, and will be used for R&D, including the building of thousands more robots at Starship’s engineering and innovation facility in Tallinn, Estonia.
3. Calii
Latin America-based grocery delivery startup Calii has bagged $22.5 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Dalus Capital and JAM Fund, with participation from backers including Forerunner Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Y Combinator and Base10 Partners.
To date, the venture, which was founded in 2019, has raised nearly $35 million.
According to its LinkedIn profile, Calii is “the number one rated grocery delivery service in Latin America: ultra fresh produce and thousands of additional SKUs delivered instantly at below retail prices.”
It connects directly to local producers - thus bypassing middlemen - and “automates away all inefficiencies in the supply chain, fulfilling via a network of dark stores and aggregating demand via social, gamified deals.”
4. Deliverect
Deliverect, a Belgian startup that aims to simplify online food delivery, has secured more than $150 million (€130 million) in a Series D funding round led by Coatue and Alkeon Capital, as well as existing investors OMERS Ventures, DST Global, Redpoint Ventures, Newion and Smartfin.
This brings Deliverect to $240 million raised to date and puts the company's valuation at over $1.4 billion.
5. Swiggy
Indian food delivery startup, Swiggy, has raised $700 million in a funding round led by US asset manager Invesco.
This has nearly doubled its valuation to $10.7 billion, making it a decacorn, The company was previously valued at $5.5 billion.
6. Passport
Cross-border e-commerce shipping startup, Passport, has landed $39 million in Series B funding.
The round was led by TCV, with participation from new investors including Flexport, FJ Labs and Pure Imagination as well as industry angels including Nik Sharma CEO of Sharma Brands, Kitsch founders Cassandra and Jeremy Thurswell, Shopify's former VP of Shipping Louis Kearns, Jeremy Cai CEO of Italic and Sid Gupta CEO of Quince.
There was also participation from existing investors including M13, Resolute, and River Park Ventures. Since its inception in 2017, Passport has raised a total of $54 million.
"These funds allow us to do two big things. The first is to further develop our software-based infrastructure for cross-border e-commerce and secondly, to expand on our recent acquisition of Access Worldwide by building out our physical logistics capabilities," says Passport Co-Founder and CEO Alex Yancher.
"We're building a modern international shipping solution that combines best in class technology with best in class logistics and this investment helps us get there faster."
