To bolster its growth, Mirakl aims to build new tools to suit B2B business models, as well as to launch new analytics capabilities to help merchants leverage the massive trove of data coming from online marketplaces more actionable.

In the latest sign of online marketplace’s growing importance within ecommerce, online marketplace technology vendor Mirakl on Thursday announced it has raised $70 million in its latest funding round. Mirakl has raised $100 million to date.

The vendor plans to use the funding to hire additional staff members, invest in its technology and expand internationally.

Bain Capital Ventures led the round, which also included existing investors 83North, Felix Capital and Elaia Partners, bringing total capital raised to $100 million.

The vendor, which currently employs a little more than 200 staff, plans to add another 100 employees this year to bolster the company’s development, sales and marketing, research and development and customer success teams, Adrien Nussenbaum, U.S. CEO and co-founder of Mirakl, tells Internet Retailer. The vast majority of the new hires will be located in either the United States or Europe, although a small number will be in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

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“The people we employ are our main fuel for growth,” he says. And the United States and North America are key markets where Mirakl is eyeing growth. “Clearly, from a geography standpoint, we see our business accelerating on that side of ocean,” he says.

The funding announcement comes a month after Mirakl announced its 2018 revenue grew 80% year over year and the gross merchandise volume on ecommerce sites that use Mirakl’s technology to operate marketplaces jumped 100% year over year. The vendor added 60 new customers last year and launched 37 marketplaces, including one operated by grocery retailer Albertsons Cos. LLC.

In adding a marketplace to its ecommerce site, Albertsons—the third-largest grocer in the United States in terms of market share and No. 178 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000–sought to create an “infinite aisle” that gives consumers access to more natural, organic, ethnic and “alternative” products. At the same time, the marketplace also has provided the retailer with data about customers nationwide that could help it identify shifting consumer interests, regionally specific shopping needs and new food trends, the retailer says.

To bolster its growth, Mirakl aims to build new tools to suit B2B business models, as well as launch new analytics capabilities to help merchants leverage the massive trove of data coming from online marketplaces in a more actionable way. It also aims to find ways to simplify the process for retailers and brands to launch a marketplace, onboard sellers and rapidly add SKUs. Mirakl’s B2B clients include Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Siemens Mobility.

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Finding ways to cater to Mirakl’s customer base is crucial to its long-term success, Nussenbaum says. “We’re building the next wave of ecommerce technology,” he says. “If you look at the technologies that enabled the first wave of ecommerce, there were ecommerce platforms like hybris, Demandware and Magento. We believe the next generation of solutions that retailers and brands need will offer the functionality needed to extend their traditional ecommerce business into a marketplace.”

Marketplaces’ market share is rapidly growing. Last year, marketplaces accounted for 52% of global ecommerce sales. And sales on those platforms are outpacing the broader ecommerce market; online marketplaces around the world grew their gross merchandise value 23% last year, which compares to 18% growth among the broader ecommerce market, according to Internet Retailer research.

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