Five retail technology funding rounds you need to know about
RTIH rounds up the retail systems ventures whose funding rounds have been making headlines, including Swiftly, Ryft, Instant Commerce, and 1MRobotics.
1. Ryft
Ryft, a PSD2 compliant payments system firm, has raised a seed round, led by SFC Capital.
Additional investors include the ex-founder of Shutterstock and the founder of LoveFilm.
This brings Ryft’s total funding to date to £1.2 million.
Ryft enables automated next day payouts for marketplace businesses and their merchants, for a single flat fee per transaction.
Think Stripe Connect without the high fees and lengthy payout wait times, the startup says.
2. Swiftly
Swiftly has announced a $100 million Series C funding round led by BRV Capital Management, bringing the company's total valuation to more than $1 billion.
This marks Swiftly’s second $100 million financing round in less than six months.
The startup provides bricks and mortar grocers with branded phone apps designed to help retailers gather highly customer data and earn advertising dollars, while shoppers can find what they’re looking for in the aisles, recall past purchases and skip lines by scanning products and paying with their phones.
3. 1MRobotics
1MRobotics, a specialist in robotic dark stores, has raised $16.5 million in Series A funding led by Ibex Investors with participation from its existing backers Emerge VC, Target Global, and INT3.
This brings the total raised to $25 million, including a seed round of $8.5 million.
“Last mile delivery is a highly challenging space where any brand/retailer/operator is pushing to deliver at maximal efficiency and in the shortest time window possible. Dark stores are a new class of infrastructure that is essential for Quick-Commerce and Direct-to-Consumer retail,” says Co-founder and CEO Eyal Yair.
“1MRobotics develops robotic nano-fulfilment centres, creating the next-gen dark stores designed specifically to meet the ever growing need for rapid delivery and enabling quick expansion and optimal unit economics. Our systems are shipped globally inside standard shipping containers, ready to operate.”
4. Instant Commerce
Instant Commerce, a headless storefront builder, has secured a €5.4 million seed.
The round was led by HV Capital and joined by Hearst Ventures and existing investor firstminute capital.
Since being founded at the start of 2022, Instant Commerce has landed more than 30 clients including Bols, ID&T, Ekster, and Yaya.
This latest round comes eight months after it raised €2.1 million pre-seed from firstminute capital and various angel investors, bringing total investment to €7.5 million.
5. Ledgy
Ledgy, an equity management platform for startups, has announced a $22 million Series B funding round led by venture capital firm, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from Sequoia Capital, Speedinvest, btov, Visionaries Club and VI Partners, as well as existing angel investors.
This comes one year after its $10 million Series A, led by Sequoia, which saw Luciana Lixandru (Partner, Sequoia) join Ledgy’s board.
As part of the Series B funding, Jonathan Golden, Partner at NEA, will also now join the Ledgy board.
The firm will use the funds to recruit new staff members, increase the pace of product and feature development, and expand its presence in Europe.
Golden says: “Through my lens as an investor at NEA, combined with my past experience at category-defining companies like Airbnb, Dropbox and Hubspot, I’ve seen the central role ownership plays in building enduring companies.”
“The equity management challenge is especially acute in Europe, with different legal structures governing equity in every country.”
“Ledgy has created a smart and powerful equity software platform and built an incredible, best-in-class team to support it. It understands the challenges faced by companies as they scale, and we are thrilled to partner with the Ledgy team as they continue to reinvent how companies think about equity and ownership.”
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