Algorithmic Platform CommerceIQ Raises $60 Mn In Series C Funding RoundFunds will further improve offering to help leading consumer brands such as Kellogg's, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive and Spectrum Brands win online, and support rapid growth of its India operations
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Algorithmic platform CommerceIQ, which helps consumer brands win in e-commerce, on Wednesday announced the closing of a $60 million Series C funding round.
The funding round was led by Insight Partners, the venture capital and private equity firm behind market-changing brands Shopify, Twitter, Hello Fresh, and Wix, among others. Additional funding participation included existing investors: Trinity Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Madrona Venture Group.
"With a 40 per cent growth in e-commerce this year alone, it is imperative that brands apply automation and machine learning to manage their business online," said Guru Hariharan, chief executive officer, CommerceIQ. "The tried and true methods that were perfected for brick and mortar simply do not work online. Our customers are using our platform to win in e-commerce, by harnessing real-time visibility to all aspects of the operation within a single source of truth to drive automation at scale."
The round will fund international expansion and product research and development focused on further maximizing brand revenue and profitability on Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, Target, and other online marketplaces.
The company also intends to significantly scale its India operations, with additional key hires in software and product development, data science and analytics, product operations, and support.
"The technology behind our award-winning platform was developed in India and our presence in the region is critical to sustaining our future growth. In the last two years in India alone, we have doubled our headcount and as we move forward, these operations will be a pillar of the overall growth of the company and our ability to deliver on our ambitious product roadmap. With such a talented and passionate team, we also expect India to be a cornerstone to our future market expansion into Asia-Pacific as a whole," Hariharan added.
CommerceIQ is at the forefront of the e-commerce boom, experiencing triple-digit growth over the last two years. Today it has more than 2,200 brands that use the technology daily to increase the share of voice (20 per cent on average), pump up incremental sales (40 per cent on average), and enhance profitability (20 per cent on average).
"We're delighted to support CommerceIQ's mission of fueling their customers' e-commerce successes," shared Nikitas Koutoupes, managing director, Insight Partners, who will be joining CommerceIQ's board. "It is not necessarily obvious that most of the digital commerce is thriving through indirect channels, like Amazon, Walmart and the like, with only 15% occurring through brands' direct efforts. CommerceIQ's unique focus on indirect channels is helping large brands deliver on the metrics that matter and win the lion's share of the e-commerce market in a post-pandemic world. We couldn't be more excited to welcome CommerceIQ to the Insight portfolio."
CommerceIQ is the only industry solution that ties together multiple functions - sales, advertising, supply chain operations - and drives large-scale automation across the e-commerce operation, the platform claimed.
"Digital commerce is one of our key strategic priorities," commented Surabhi Pokhriyal, worldwide director, global digital commerce, Colgate-Palmolive Company. "We know that it is crucial to winning the consumer at the moment of purchase, however, winning in e-commerce is unique and takes building a different muscle versus the traditional ways of doing business. To that end, we leverage artificial intelligence-led platforms like Commerce IQ to bring the best to bear for our online presence, enabling our teams to be more effective. Automation has helped us move away from manual processes to streamlined e-commerce operations, driving market share and profitability. We are eager to see newer functionalities that the CommerceIQ platform brings to us."
The company has raised $81 million to date, which portends its future growth as the category leader for algorithmic e-commerce management.
