Elastic Path Raises A $43M Series B To Ramp Up R&D For Commerce Platform

Canadian commerce solutions provider Elastic Path has raised $43 million in a Series B led by Sageview Capital.

The latest round brings the Vancouver-based company’s total raised to more than $63 million. Existing investors Yaletown Partners and BDC Venture Capital also participated in the funding.

Despite being around for nearly two decades, Elastic Path was bootstrapped until its first outside funding in 2013.

In its first five years, Elastic Path was primarily a services firm that built interactive websites. After customers kept asking the company to implement e-commerce systems, it moved into the software arena. BEA Systems then began reselling Elastic Path’s platforms to its customer base in 2007, and that got Elastic Path into the enterprise space. After Oracle acquired BEA Systems, Elastic Path began selling its products directly to enterprise customers.

Since then, Elastic Path’s momentum has steadily increased. Last year, it saw a 120 percent growth in subscription revenue.

According to Elastic Path, the company competes against Oracle, IBM, SAP, and other companies of a similar ilk.  It counts Carnival Cruise Line, T-Mobile and Intuit as customers, with 200 others in tow. It has also gained some customers in Europe, including telecommunications company Swisscom and French electronics giant Boulanger. The company’s flagship product, Elastic Path Commerce, has been used by companies to generate more than $60 billion in over 170 countries, according to Chemko.

In general, companies are opting for “more nimble” API-based technologies to build commerce systems for new, more tech-savvy generations, he added. Chemko explained that a website and mobile app is simply not enough for companies trying to build a brand.

Photo courtesy of Elastic Path

In the near future, Chemko claims that “companies must coordinate dozens. if not hundreds, more ways customers can purchase.”

Ned Gilhuly, co-founder and managing director of Sageview Capital, described Elastic Path as a company that is “pioneering API-oriented commerce.”

“The inherent flexibility of Elastic Path Commerce allows companies to re-imagine their relationships with customers in the digital age,” Gilhuly said in a written statement. “We are convinced that Elastic Path has the technology for the future in a rapidly evolving market and we look forward to providing the company with both the financial and operational resources it needs to continue disrupting the marketplace.”

Elastic Path will be opening a new office in Toronto to attract developers and plans to increase its workforce of 150 by 33 percent by year’s end, according to CEO and co-founder Harry Chemko. The company also plans to use the money it raised to “significantly” ramp up research and development efforts to address the B2B market.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias

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