VTEX, a company focused on e-commerce strategies for major retailers and consumer brands, announced it has raised $225 million in a Series D funding round that included Tiger Global, Lone Pine Capital, Constellation, Endeavour Catalyst and SoftBank.
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The new funding takes the New York-based company to unicorn status with a valuation of $1.7 billion, and a total funding of $365 million. That included a $140 million venture round led by SoftBank last November, according to Crunchbase data.
Founded in 2000, the company intends to use the cash infusion to strengthen its balance sheet, Amit Shah, chief strategy officer and U.S. general manager at VTEX told Crunchbase News. That includes making acquisitions, hiring additional talent, investing in customer success, innovating its platform, and accelerating growth in the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific markets.
“We have been profitable for the past 10 years, but the new funding allows us to invest in the product,” Shah said. “In addition, this is an attractive market for others to enter, so we want to keep our leadership position.”
The online sales market in the U.S. is poised to be valued at approximately $600 billion, and the shift in trends toward online commerce is driven by more consumers pushing for that convenience, he added.
VTEX, which can enable a brand to be online in as little as 30 days, has seen 98 percent growth in platform adoption during the pandemic and now works with more than 3,000 online storefronts for global brands, including Motorola, Stanley Black & Decker and Sony. It expects to close 2020 with a 114 percent increase year over year.
As such, VTEX is focused on hiring people who used to run online businesses to act as guides for its customers. The company already has 900 employees and looks to end the year with 1,000, building out its team in the U.K., France, Germany and parts of Asia Pacific, Shah said.
“We want to make sure the people on our team are as knowledgeable as our customers,” he added. “The biggest change in tech is that the customer doesn’t want to buy software, they want to buy knowledge and expertise. Software is the vehicle.”
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias
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