Vendor of everything from fulfillment to ecommerce platforms Cart.com Inc. raised $240 million in equity and debt funding last month for its various ecommerce tools. The Austin, Texas-based company says it has increased revenue by 400% in the past year. It reached $380 million in total funding with this new round. The vendor has more than 3,000 brands using its services, including 2021 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 retailers Guess Inc. (No. 174), Dollar General Corp., (No. 698) and GNC Holdings Inc. (No. 310).
Cart.com also recently acquired fulfillment and customer-care provider FB Flurry, which will allow Cart.com to provide two-day delivery to most customers in the continental U.S. CEO Omair Tariq said Cart.com’s expansion into logistics was necessary to reach the company’s goal of making it easier and cheaper for businesses to create a brand that can sell everywhere.
“Anywhere a consumer is shopping, you should be selling your product at, and Cart.com is on a mission to enable that in the most convenient way ever done,” Tariq said.
In addition to FB Flurry, Cart.com has acquired eight companies since its founding in September 2020, and its offerings now include marketing services, data analytics and ecommerce platform products. Cart.com is looking next to improve its existing services and expand into European markets.
The latest funding round was led by Dallas-based Legacy Knight Capital Partners, a branch of the family investment company Legacy Knight: Multi-Family Office. David Sawyer, Legacy Knight’s chief operation officer and managing partner, said Cart.com first caught his eye as a fast-growing company in Texas. Sawyer said he was most impressed by the vendor’s ability to quickly acquire and integrate businesses, which will naturally feed into more growth within the U.S. and internationally.
“The broader macro tailwind here that was largely caused by COVID-19 of more ecommerce businesses, more sales online versus brick and mortar — Cart.com can take that globally. There’s nothing preventing them,” Sawyer said. “I think that obviously at the right time for the company, it can be a huge growth area for them, and we are excited to support and assist in that.”
Bloomreach’s unicorn funding
Site search vendor Bloomreach raised $175 million in February, led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, giving the ecommerce software business a $2.2 billion valuation.
Co-founder and CEO Raj De Datta said the market opportunity for ecommerce is large enough to still see significant growth, even though the industry faces a “complicated landscape.” Capital from the funding round will be used, in part, for international expansion, particularly in Europe, De Datta said in a Bloomberg interview.
The company will also add more personalization to its products, he said. Without committing to a timeline, De Datta said the vendorhas reached a scale where it could go public.
“We could be public as early as next year if we wanted to be,” he said.
Bloomreach provides site search technology for 12 Top 1000 retailers include Forever 21 (No. 131), Neiman Marcus (No. 73) and David’s Bridal Inc. (No. 548).
Payment industry consolidates in Southeast Asia
M-DAQ, a fintech startup backed by Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co., agreed to buy e-wallet operator Wallex to expand its reach in Southeast Asia and pave the way for a possible public listing.
The deal marks the first in a potential series of acquisitions in the Southeast Asian payments space by the Singapore-based fintech company, said Jeremy Sng, a former head of Southeast Asia investment banking at CLSA who joined M-DAQ as its general manager in December. M-DAQ will inject over S$7 million ($5.2 million) of working capital into Wallex, said Sng, declining to disclose the total value of the deal.
The acquisition will allow M-DAQ to tap thousands of Wallex’s customers — mostly small businesses and vendors on ecommerce platforms — and diversify its revenue streams. The company currently draws about two-thirds of its revenue from Ant, according to Sng.
Bambuser lands two new clients for one-to-one video
Live ecommerce video vendor Bambuser announced two new deals with two European retailers. Sephora owner LVMH is expanding its deal with Bambuser. It’s adding one-to-one video chats between shoppers and stylists to its offerings across many of its brands. LVMH is No. 3 in the Digital Commerce 360 Europe 500. The new deal comes six months after the two companies teamed up to bring shoppable streaming video options to LVMH brand sites.
Luxury apparel retailer Browns is also working with Bambuser for one-to-one video shopping, allowing Browns employees to chat with shoppers online and provide interactive elements to the styling sessions. Browns is owned by Farfetch U.K. Ltd., No. 28 in the Digital Commerce 360 Top 100 Online Marketplaces rankings.
Bringg acquires Zenkraft
And lastly, Fulfillment platform provider Bringg closed its acquisition of parcel- and return-delivery platform Zenkraft last month. Zenkraft’s existing Salesforce integrations will help Bringg acquire and serve Salesforce customers, while Zenkraft clients will have access to wider delivery options thanks to Bringg’s network. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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