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 Zapp, Wayflyer, GWI and Chargebee.
1. Zapp
Rapid grocery delivery startup Zapp has raised $200 million in a Series B round of funding co-led by Lightspeed, 468 Capital, and BroadLight Capital.
Atomico, Burda and Vorwerk Ventures - all previous backers - also participated, alongside Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One champion (because he drives a fast car, alright?)
UK-based Zapp, which launched in 2020, has now raised $300 million in total.
It is currently live in London, Manchester, Cambridge, Bristol, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and is running a soft launch in Paris.
2. Wayflyer
E-commerce startup Wayflyer has announced a Series B funding round of $150 million.
This brings the Ireland-based venture’s post-money valuation to $1.6 billion.
The Series B round was co-led by DST Global and QED Investors.
They were joined by three new investors, Prosus, Madrone Capital Partners and J.P. Morgan. Existing backers Left Lane Capital and Guillaume Pousaz (Checkout.com founder) also participated.
Wayflyer provides e-commerce businesses with a range of financing and analytics solutions.
3. Blyp
Blyp, an AI driven data analytics platform for e-commerce companies, has raised $4 million in seed funding.
Led by World Trade Ventures, Silvertech Ventures, Eyal Waldman, Dovi Frances, Rafi Gidron and Boaz Schwartz, it will use the cash to scale its US operations and add new functionality to its platform.
“Blyp took a complex e-commerce problem and solved it using small blyps,” says Charlie Federman, General Partner, Silvertech Ventures.
“Companies are drowning in data from too many dashboards and are desperate for actionable information and guidance. Blyp is giving e-commerce SMBs access to the critical intelligence that was only available to billion-dollar businesses with IT staffs.”
“The team are on a mission to help everyday e-commerce players succeed. It’s a huge opportunity and we are thrilled to be part of their mission.”
4. GWI
Audience insights venture, GWI, has secured over $180 million in a Series B funding round at a valuation of $850 million. The financing was led by Permira’s growth fund.
The new investment will be used to advance GWI’s SaaS platform, extending its coverage and reach by capturing more data points from more consumers, in more countries, particularly from underserved markets and segments.
CEO and Founder, Tom Smith, comments: “Companies today need an instantaneous view of their audience everywhere in the world. The traditional approach of market research is not fit for purpose - too slow, incredibly expensive, and lacks the scale and detail needed.”
“Our technology has solved this problem and the result has been incredible growth over the last three years. We can’t wait to work with Permira on our five-year goal to put audience insights in the workflow of every professional.”
Alex Melamud, Principal at Permira, comments: “Understanding the digital consumer will continue to be increasingly important to brands, agencies, and media organisations who focus on engaging and acquiring customers through digital channels.”
“Companies competing in today’s marketplace need instant audience insights and we believe GWI’s modern platform and globally, harmonised data set provides a unique solution to any data storyteller. We look forward to leveraging our global platform to support GWI’s continued growth and expansion across international markets.”
5. Chargebee
Chargebee has raised $250 million in funding co-led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital, putting its valuation at $3.5 billion.
This was co-led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital, along with returning investors including Insight Partners, Sapphire and Steadview Capital.
The round follows a previous one in April, raising $125 million at a $1.4 billion valuation, bringing the total investment in the company to $470 million.
“We believe every company will be a subscription company in the future,” said Tejeshwi Sharma, MD, Sequoia India.
“The predictability of a subscription business model is extremely attractive, and Chargebee is the leading revenue management partner for the subscription economy.”
“Its platform offers customers a real-time 360-degree view into revenues and user behaviour and the intelligence they can use to quickly adapt and make better business decisions. Sequoia’s investment reflects the growing market need and belief in the Chargebee team.”
6. Melonn
Melonn, a Colombian startup that provides fulfilment and software services to small and medium-sized e-commerce companies in Latin America, has bagged $20 million in a Series A round led by QED Investors.
This comes less than a year after it raised a pre-seed round from NFX.
According to its LinkedIn bio, the company is “building the real, tangible half of e-commerce or, as we like to call it, the missing half of Shopify.”
“With our backend technology platform and our end-to-end fulfilment solution, any e-commerce business in Latam will be able to scale across sales platforms and cities/countries, and deliver orders to end consumers on the same or next day.”
The bio concludes: “This way, we are empowering sellers - regardless of their size - to successfully compete and grow in the booming Latam e-commerce market.”
