Gig economy startup Reflex closes $4.5m seed funding round
Reflex, an online marketplace that connects retail associates with brands in need of staffing help, has emerged from stealth and announced a $4.5 million oversubscribed seed funding round.
This was led by Indicator Ventures, with additional investment from Sugar Capital and Red Swan Ventures.
This brings the total raised to $5.95 million after Reflex bagged an initial $1.45 million pre-seed round in 2021.
All previous investors participated in the seed round, including ATX Venture Partners, Precursor Ventures, Active Capital and Clutch VC.
The Austin, USA-headquartered venture has landed itself such angel investors as Jim Scully (former CFO and Chief Administrative Officer at J.Crew), Mike Tucci (former President of Coach’s North American retail division) and Ron Sargent (former Chairman and CEO of Staples).
Also investing were RetailMeNot founder Cotter Cunningham and Favor CEO Jag Bath.
“Everyone deserves to be able to design a life where the things that matter most come first, instead of planning your life around work,” says Reflex Co-founder and CEO Mike Meyers.
“We’ve proven in our first year that there is a better way to work in retail. People want to work on their terms and design their work around their life, not the other way around.”
The company will use the new capital to expand across Texas through the remainder of 2022, as well as add additional major US retail markets over the next 18 months.
“With a tool like Reflex, a store manager can protect the internal and external customer experience. That is something we are not willing to sacrifice,” says Alan Martin, VP of Retail at Faherty.
“These days, the store manager must react to footfall pattern changes, in-store web fulfillment and inconsistent stock receiving while still driving in-store activities to create a memorable shopping experience.”
“Having a modern way to get talent in the door quickly to support these variables has made our business better, for the team and the customer.”
“Reflex is a game changer for retail. No one else is delivering this type of value for store managers and workers alike,” says Geoff Bernstein, General Partner at Indicator Ventures.
“Because it's purpose built for retail, Reflex reflects a keen understanding of what managers are looking for and how today’s workers want to structure their work.”
