Made in Cymru launches for independent welsh sellers

A new marketplace called Made in Cymru has launched to support independent welsh sellers by offering them a platform to showcase their products to a wider audience.

“We are really excited to be officially launching the Made in Cymru platform and opening it out to sellers from across Wales.

The site has been developed with local businesses in North Wales, and following their positive feedback, we are now rolling it out nationwide to allow every independent company in Wales the chance to retail on the site. Made in Cymru is designed to make it as easy as possible for retailers to expand their reach and place their products in front of a far wider audience.”
– Michael Gwynne, Founder, Made in Cymru

Despite the challenges of the past year, there has been a surge in consumers wanting to purchase locally and support independent businesses. Made in Cymru recognized this desire and created an innovative platform for independent sellers in Wales, allowing everyone to showcase their products to an interested audience.

Having had a very successful soft launch earlier this year, the platform is now expanding its reach to all those businesses that produce handmade gifts, products and crafts. Sellers can currently list products for free in the following categories; Art and Collectibles, Clothing and Shoes, Health and Beauty, Home and Living, Jewellery and Accessories and Wedding and Party.

Selling on Made in Cymru

If you’re a seller living in wales you might want to check out this marketplace. Some of the benefits detailed on their website are:

• It’s free to list your items

• You only pay a 10% transaction fee on each order and this includes the payment processing costs

• Each product lists comes with its own unique URL for you to share on your social media profiles

• Payments are processed on Shopify’s secure, SSL-encrypted platform, ensuring fraud-detection systems are there to protect you and your buyers

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71% of Austrians shop online more regularly since pandemic

An e-commerce study conducted on behalf of Mastercard Austria has revealed some interesting insights on the payment and purchasing behavior of Austrians when shopping online.

According to the study, 71% of respondents have been shopping more online since the pandemic, this shows how coronavirus has pushed ecommerce in the country just like it has in many other places across the world.

The data also shows that 85% of the respondents state that they shop online at least once a month with most of them making two to three online purchases per month. 42% buy weekly or even more often and When choosing how to pay online, Austrians decide primarily on the basis of security criteria.

Credit cards & purchase on account

The results show that the most common payment methods in e-commerce in Austria are purchase on account (88%), credit card payment (74%) and direct debit and direct debit (73%), followed by Klarna Sofortüberweisung (62%), prepayment (59 %), Paypal via bank account (48%). Innovative forms of payment such as Apple Pay bring up the rear with only 16%. When it comes to frequency of use, the credit card comes out on top – 31% say they use it very often or often. Second and third place in terms of frequency are purchase on account and PayPal – 29% and 20% respectively state that they choose these means of payment very often or often.

What are Austrians buying?

The findings show that the most popular group of goods in e-commerce in Austria are electrical goods. Almost two thirds of Austrians (62%) buy them online. 61% of Austrian consumers also shop for fashion and clothing online. 58% buy books, board games and children’s toys online, followed by travel, flight and hotel bookings (54%) and tickets for cultural events (54%). 36% of Austrians also use delivery services, for example for restaurant orders or food deliveries. Streaming services are also an important branch of e-commerce and have become indispensable for Austrians: Almost half of Austrians (47%) purchase streaming services such as Netflix or Spotify. 38% also make in-app purchases, e.g. in the area of ​​gaming or subscription purchases.

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6 investors and founders forecast hockey-stick growth for Edinburgh’s startup scene

Scotland is slowly but surely drawing attention in the UK’s startup space. In 2020, Scottish startups collectively raised £345 million, according to Tech Nation, and with nearly 2,500 startups, it has the highest number of budding tech companies outside London. Venture capital fundraises are also consistently on the rise every year.

Scotland’s capital Edinburgh boasts a beautiful, hilly landscape, a robust education system and good access to grant funding, public and private investment. It’s also one of the top financial centers in the U.K., making it a great place to begin a business.

So to find out what the startup scene in Edinburgh looks like, we spoke to six founders, executives and investors. The city’s tech ecosystem appears to have a robust space for machine learning, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, fintech, travel tech, oil, renewables, e-commerce, gaming, health tech, deep tech, space tech and insurtech.

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However, the city’s tech scene is apparently lackluster when it comes to legal tech, blockchain and consumer-facing technology.

Breakout companies that were founded in Edinburgh include Skyscanner and FanDuel. Notable among the current crop are Desana, Continuum Industries, Parsley Box, Current Health, Boundary, Zumo, Appointedd, Criton, Mallzee, TravelNest, TVSquared, Care Sourcer, Stampede, For-Sight, Vistalworks, Reath, InfraCost, Speech Graphics and Cyan Forensics.

The Edinburgh business-angel community appears to be quite strong, but it seems local founders find it difficult to get London-based investors to take an interest. Scottish investors are said to be “pretty conservative and risk-adverse” with some notable exceptions.

We surveyed:

• Wendy Lamin, managing director, Holoxica
• Andrew Noble, partner, Par Equity
• Danae Shell, co-founder and CEO, Valla
• Allan Nelson, co-founder and CEO, For-Sight
• Lysimachos Zografos, founder, Parkure
• Bertie Wilson, co-founder in stealth mode

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Wendy Lamin, managing director, Holoxica

Which sectors is your tech ecosystem strong in? What are you most excited by? What does it lack?
It’s strong in space, biomedicine, fintech/insurtech, AI.

What are the tech investors like in Edinburgh? What’s their focus?
The Scottish business-angel community is said to be the largest in Europe. It’s difficult to get London-based investors take an interest in Scotland — investors can tend to look at where companies are based. It is hard for “underrepresented founders” to get investments in Scotland and beyond.

With the shift to remote working, do you think people will stay in Edinburgh or will they move out? Will others move in?
Stay. Not always easy to get people to come and live in Scotland. Edinburgh, there are lots of prejudices, despite it being one of the best cities to live in in the whole of the U.K.

Who are the key startup people in the city (e.g., investors, founders, lawyers, designers)?
Good to see more focus on impact investing. Par Equity is one of Edinburgh’s biggest investors, whereas Archangels is one of the biggest angel investors. Poonam Malik is great for diversity and female entrepreneurs, and she is on the board of Scottish Enterprise, and is a social entrepreneur and investor. Garry Bernstein is also an investor — he leads the Scottish chapter of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates, and as such is the founder of Tech Scot Advocates.

Where do you think the city’s tech scene will be in five years?
Thriving. The government is doing its best for the tech sector. Education in tech is currently an issue, though. Hope Brexit won’t be too much of an issue.

Andrew Noble, partner, Par Equity

Which sectors is your tech ecosystem strong in? What are you most excited by? What does it lack?
Strong in fintech, health tech, data science, deep tech. Excited by quantum computing, advanced materials, AI in Edinburgh. Weak in blockchain and consumer.

Which are the most interesting startups in Edinburgh?
Current Health, InfraCost, Speech Graphics and Cyan Forensics.

What are the tech investors like in Edinburgh? What’s their focus?
Good at seed stage up to £1 million, okay for pre-series A (£1 million to £3 million) and non-existent for Series A (£3 million-£10 million). Quality of investors is improving. Par Equity is leading the way.

With the shift to remote working, do you think people will stay in Edinburgh, or will they move out? Will others move in?
Experiencing influx of new talent due to COVID-19. Edinburgh is a highly desirable city to live in. Recent new residents include Aaron Ross (Predictable Revenue) and Jules Pursuad (early employee at Airbnb and now VP at Omio).

Who are the key startup people in the city (e.g., investors, founders, lawyers, designers)?
Par Equity (investor), Paul Atkinson, Alistair Forbes, Mark Logan, Lesley Eccles, Chris McCann, CodeBase.

Where do you think the city’s tech scene will be in five years?
One to two new unicorns. Promising number of high-growth tech companies. A much more sophisticated investor scene in the Series A space.

Danae Shell, co-founder and CEO, Valla

Which sectors is your tech ecosystem strong in? What are you most excited by? What does it lack?
Edinburgh is strong in fintech because of our proximity to so many financial services companies and banks. Also, there are some exciting games tech companies because of our history of games companies. We’re pretty weak in law tech, Valla’s area.

Which are the most interesting startups in Edinburgh?
Vistalworks for consumer tech; Sustainably for fintech; Reath for sustainable tech.

What are the tech investors like in Edinburgh? What’s their focus?
As a rule, Scottish investors are pretty conservative and risk-averse. The only real exception is Techstart Ventures, in my experience.

With the shift to remote working, do you think people will stay in Edinburgh, or will they move out? Will others move in?
I think more people will come to Edinburgh from London because the quality of life and cost of living are both so much better here.

Who are the key startup people in the city (e.g., investors, founders, lawyers, designers)?
Calum Forsyth and Mark Hogarth at Techstart Ventures; Janine Matheson at CodeBase; Jackie Waring from the Investing Women angel syndicate; Jim Newbury is a very well-respected developer and coach, and my co-founder Kate Ho is also well known. Also Danny Helson who runs the EIE event with the Bayes Centre.

Where do you think the city’s tech scene will be in five years?
We’ve had a few exits in the past few years (Skyscanner, FreeAgent), which means that talent is spreading out across the ecosystem here and we’re getting some fantastic new startups kicking off. In five years, that first crop should be coming into the Series A stage so we could see a lot of super exciting businesses!

Allan Nelson, co-founder and CEO, For-Sight

Which sectors is your tech ecosystem strong in? What are you most excited by? What does it lack?
Strong in fintech, travel tech, health, oil, renewables, e-commerce, gaming (both video game and gambling tech). Excited by all bar oil (great driver of revenue, but not the future).

Which are the most interesting startups in Edinburgh?
Boundary, Parsley Box, Appointedd, Criton, Mallzee, TravelNest, TVSquared, Care Sourcer, Stampede, For-Sight.

What are the tech investors like in Edinburgh? What’s their focus?
Big fintech scene here. Travel tech is growing too, with Skyscanner’s influence strong.

With the shift to remote working, do you think people will stay in Edinburgh, or will they move out? Will others move in?
Most will stay, as it’s a very attractive city to live and work in. It’s a globally recognized and unique city. Very international flavor as evidenced by the makeup of our team.

Who are the key startup people in the city (e.g., investors, founders, lawyers, designers)?
Ex-Skyscanner people including Gareth Williams, Mark Logan, etc. Ian Ritchie, Alistair Forbes, the FanDuel’s founders and the CodeBase founders.

Where do you think the city’s tech scene will be in five years?
A lot bigger, as tech is a key growth target of the Scottish government and is underpinned/influenced/inspired by Skyscanner and FanDuel.

Lysimachos Zografos, founder, Parkure

Which sectors is your tech ecosystem strong in? What are you most excited by? What does it lack?
Strong in machine learning/AI/digital. Weak in deep tech discovery, especially in biotech/therapeutics. Excited by the rise in adoption of AI in drug discovery — all these ideas that were sci-fi 20 years ago are now adopted in £B deals.

Which are the most interesting startups in Edinburgh?
Pheno Therapeutics.

What are the tech investors like in Edinburgh? What’s their focus?
Conservative angels and a few tech seed VCs.

With the shift to remote working, do you think people will stay in Edinburgh, or will they move out? Will others move in?
Move in.

Who are the key startup people in the city (e.g., investors, founders, lawyers, designers)?
Investors: Archangels, Techstart Ventures and Epidarex.

Where do you think the city’s tech scene will be in five years?
Growing.

Bertie Wilson, co-founder, “Stealth mode”

Which sectors is your tech ecosystem strong in? What are you most excited by? What does it lack?
I don’t think there are any sectors that stand out — it’s fairly evenly split. A good strength of the city is the talent that comes from the universities. There are some really good engineers that come from Edinburgh, Heriot Watt and Edinburgh Napier. The main weakness is that the ecosystem doesn’t favor the most ambitious founders. Most investors in the region are angels and aren’t interested in finding outliers that could grow 1000x and are more interested in backing companies that are less risky but might 5x their money. If you want to find investors that will back risky (but very ambitious) plans, it’s easier to find that elsewhere.

Which are the most interesting startups in Edinburgh?
Desana, Continuum Industries, Parsley Box, Current Health, Boundary, Zumo.

What are the tech investors like in Edinburgh? What’s their focus?
I would say it’s getting better, but there are still a lot of issues with the ecosystem. It is being helped in Scotland by the likes of Techstart investing at the earliest stages with high conviction and term sheets that are more similar to London VCs. Outside of this, though, it’s easy for founders to end up with a messy cap table due to the number of angels and lack of VCs looking for VC-type returns — the messiness of these cap tables can then make it hard to raise venture funding down the line. This is fine for a lot of companies that aren’t aiming for a venture-scale return (which admittedly is a lot), but it can hurt those that are.

With the shift to remote working, do you think people will stay in Edinburgh, or will they move out? Will others move in?
I imagine and hope others will move in. It is a great place to live with a very high quality of life, and this should be a natural attraction for people who want a good standard of living but want to remain in a city.

Who are the key startup people in the city (e.g., investors, founders, lawyers, designers)?
SEP (investor), Techstart Ventures (investor), Gareth Williams (founder/investor), MBM Commercial (lawyers), Pentech, Bill Dobbie (investor), Jamie Coleman.

Where do you think the city’s tech scene will be in five years?
Optimistically, I hope that there will be a good number of companies that are at the Series B/Series C stage, which will invite a lot more interest from investors outside of Edinburgh (London, Berlin, Paris, New York, San Francisco, etc.) to start investing more actively in the city at the earliest stages as well as these stages.

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Extra Crunch roundup: first-check myths, Miami relocation checklist, standout SaaSy startups

This may seem like a great time to launch a SaaS startup, but the landscape is crowded with well-designed applications that promise “blazingly fast and delightfully simple” experiences, according to seed-stage investor John Chen of Fika Ventures.

Most SaaS startups will fail, but not because of a sour marketing campaign or server downtime. The majority of these companies will fall victim to what Chen calls “the myth of frictionless onboarding.”

Despite the hype about ease of use, enterprise companies always ask customers to abandon familiar tools so they can learn something new.

“Just like with a new fitness program, participants feel good after completing the workout, but it takes a lot of activation energy to start and hard work to get there,” Chen notes.

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Instead of putting the onus on customers to roll up their sleeves, he suggests that SaaS startups learn from cryptocurrency culture and find ways to “incentivize users to do the necessary work to have the right experience.”

But how do you encourage users to put in the time and effort required to produce an optimal customer experience?

“In a world where there is a surplus of alternatives for every job to be done, the scarce resource is not content, tooling, or hacks and tricks,” says Chen. “It’s attention.”

We’re off on Monday, May 31 in observance of Memorial Day; I hope you have a relaxing weekend!

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist

SaaS needs to take a page out of the crypto playbook

Dismantling the myths around raising your first check

Image Credits: Klaus Vedfelt (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

As startups and venture capital grow in tandem, fundraising has gone from a formal affair on Sand Hill Road to a process that can happen anywhere from Twitter to Zoom.

While fundraising may no longer require a trip to California, it might depend on whether you got an invite to a private audio app. And while you may not need to be an insider, second-time founders — largely male and white — still have a competitive advantage.

The growing complexity of fundraising has the opportunity to make tech either inclusive or exclusive.

VC is the flashy gold medal, but the rapid growth of emerging fund managers means that a first check can be piecemealed together from a variety of different sources. The options for financing are seemingly endless: syndicates, public crowdfunding, VC firms, accelerators, debt financing, rolling funds, and, for the profitable few, bootstrapping.

Dismantling the myths around raising your first check

Doximity’s S-1 may explain why healthcare exits are heating up

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

Telehealth startup Doximity filed to go public earlier today. Notably, the company has not fundraised since 2014, a year in which it attracted just under $82 million at a valuation of $355 million, per PitchBook data.

How has it managed to not raise money for so long? By generating lots of cash and profit over the years. Healthtech communications, it turns out, can be a lucrative endeavor.

Doximity’s S-1 may explain why healthcare exits are heating up

What Vimeo’s growth, profits and value tell us about the online video market

Image Credits: Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The spin-out of video platform Vimeo from IAC completed this week, and the smaller company is now trading as an independent entity under the ticker ‘VMEO’.

If you missed the news that the internet conglomerate was spinning out the video service, don’t feel bad; it slipped past many radars. But with the company now trading, our access to its historical results, and our minds still enthralled by YouTube’s recent financial performance for Alphabet, it’s worth taking a moment to digest the company’s health.

What Vimeo’s growth, profits and value tell us about the online video market

Flywire’s flotation suggests the IPO slowdown is behind us

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

The Flywire IPO is neat from a financial perspective and notable in that it’s a Boston exit as opposed to yet another New York or San Francisco-based flotation. It’s nice to see some other cities put points on the board.

But more than that, this IPO is a useful measuring stick for keeping tabs on the IPO market as a whole. This year and the last are shaping up to be key exit periods for startups and unicorns of all shapes and sizes; many a venture capital fund return rests on these public debuts.

Flywire’s flotation suggests the IPO slowdown is behind us

Dear Sophie: Any unique immigration strategies for quick hiring?

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Dear Sophie,

I do recruitment for tech startups. With a surge of VC investing, many startups are urgently hiring.

Which visas offer the quickest options for international talent? Are there any unique strategies that you would recommend we explore?

— Maverick in Milpitas

Dear Sophie: Any unique immigration strategies for quick hiring?

7 questions to ask before relocating your startup to Florida

Image Credits: Artur Debat (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Cities like Miami, Pittsburgh and Austin have been drawing talent and wealth from Silicon Valley for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the trend.

In recent months, many investors and entrepreneurs have noisily departed for Miami, citing the region’s favorable business climate and quality of life.

It’s always good to consider one’s options, but before booking a moving van for the Sunshine State — or any emerging tech hub, for that matter — here are some basic questions entrepreneurs should ask themselves.

7 questions to ask before relocating your startup to Florida

Vise CEO Samir Vasavada and Sequoia’s Shaun Maguire break down the art of the pitch

Image Credits: Sequoia Capital / Wolfe + Von / TechCrunch

In just a few short years, Vise has gone from launching on the Disrupt Battlefield stage to a unicorn. Co-founders Samir Vasavada and Runik Mehrotra met Sequoia’s Shaun Maguire at an after-party at the event, and Maguire ended up leading a seed and Series A round while Sequoia led the Series B.

Last week, Vise raised its Series C of $65 million and was officially valued at $1 billion post-money.

We spoke to the pair about the early fundraising process for Vise, what Vasavada has learned about delivering a good fundraising pitch, and what stood out about the pitch and the product for Maguire.

Vise CEO Samir Vasavada and Sequoia’s Shaun Maguire break down the art of the pitch

Acorns’ SPAC listing depicts a consumer fintech business with a SaaSy revenue mix

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

Another day, another unicorn public offering.

On Thursday, it was Acorns, a consumer fintech service that blends saving and investing into a freemium product.

Acorns fits inside the larger savings-and-investing boom seen over the last four or five quarters as consumers buffeted by the economic changes brought on by COVID-19 turned to stashing cash and boosting their equities investing cadence.

By now this is old news, but we haven’t had a clear picture of the economics of consumer fintech startups accelerated by the pandemic. Now that Acorns has decided to list via a SPAC — more on that in a moment — we do.

Poor onboarding is the enemy of good hiring

Image Credits: Olga Strelnikova (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

The world of hybrid work is here, and the usual 10-minute intro call, swag bag and first-day team lunch are just not enough to make your new employee feel welcome.

While many companies have found a way to interview and select candidates in a fully remote environment, few have spent time and resources on aligning the “pre-boarding” and onboarding process for the new hybrid world of work. Many employers still rely on old ways of welcoming new hires, despite our totally changed work environment.

It’s important to capitalize on candidates’ enthusiasm and eagerness from the moment the offer is signed instead of when they log in on Day One, because first impressions can make or break a candidate’s chances of staying at a company.

Poor onboarding is the enemy of good hiring

 

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Amazon is now letting Indians read magazine articles in its shopping app

Amazon, in its ever-growing desire to become a super app in India, is testing a new category to persuade users to spend more time on the shopping service: Feature articles.

The American e-commerce giant has quietly launched “Featured Articles” on its shopping app and website in India that showcases feature articles, commentary and analysis on a wide-range of topics including politics, governance, entertainment, sports, business, finance, health, fitness, books, and food. The articles are sourced from several large local media houses and magazines.

Some of these articles are “exclusively” available on Amazon, the company says on the website. To drive engagement, Amazon is also sending notifications to some Kindle users.

Image: Himanshu Gupta

The latest addition, which was spotted and shared with TechCrunch by Himanshu Gupta, comes days after Amazon launched a free video streaming service within the shopping app in the South Asian nation.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the new feature to TechCrunch, adding, “we remain focused on creating new and engaging experiences for our customers and as part of this endeavour, we have been testing a new service that brings articles on different topics like current affairs, books, business, entertainment, sports and lifestyle amongst others for readers.”

This isn’t the first time Amazon has explored integrating some reading material to its shopping service in India. In 2018, Amazon India started to feature some gadget reviews and listicles, sourced from local media houses.

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Instacart speeds up grocery orders with ‘Priority Delivery’ option

Instacart is speeding up grocery delivery. The company announced today it’s debuting a faster delivery service, “Priority Delivery,” in select markets across the U.S. and Canada, with the aim of attracting customers who would have otherwise quickly run to the store for their smaller orders or more urgent demands. At launch, the service will operate in several larger U.S. metros, and will offer deliveries in as fast as 30 minutes, the company says. Instacart is also expanding other speedier delivery services, including 45-minute and 60-minute options, to more cities and retailers in the months to come.

Today, many customers use Instacart to order their larger, weekly or monthly grocery orders, but still run to the store when they need a smaller number of items — like ingredients for tonight’s meal, for example. The new Priority Delivery wants to be an alternative to these shorter trips, effectively becoming the grocery delivery alternative to using a store’s express lane checkout.

In the markets where Priority Delivery is live, it will be indicated by supported retailers in the Instacart app with a lightning bolt icon that notes the expected delivery time, like “30 minutes or less.” Customers will also be given the option to choose Priority during checkout, instead of Standard delivery or a scheduled time, if they prefer.

The company tells us there’s not an item limit nor minimum on these types of orders. However, shorter requests — like milk, a few bags of chips, and a couple of bottles of wine, for instance — will be fulfilled faster than orders where the customer is requesting speciality deli items, a pickup from a bakery, or has a larger basket size.

When the basket size grows larger or the order becomes more complicated, the app will update to display that the 30-minute window is no longer available and display the new delivery time.

Instacart hasn’t yet finalized its pricing for the service, but Priority Delivery will carry an upcharge of some kind. However, the company tells us the fee will be “small” and “incremental,” and will likely be dynamic based on market considerations. It notes that the different delivery options and their associated fees and taxes are displayed during checkout, so there are no surprises.

Initially, Priority Delivery will be available in 5 cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle, across more than 300 store locations, including grocers and speciality retailers. It plans to roll out the service to more markets and retailers over time.

“We know that no two grocery shops are created equal – whether it’s a bulk buy for the week ahead or just a few ingredients for tonight’s dinner – so we’re launching new features that support the many ways people shop for their groceries today,” noted Daniel Danker, Vice President of Product at Instacart, in a statement about the launch. “For many customers, every minute counts when they’re in a pinch and need something in a hurry. With today’s launch of Priority Delivery, we’re redefining the ‘quick run to the store’ and bringing the grocery express lane online for customers,” he added.

In addition, Instacart will expand access to 45-minute and 60-minute delivery options to more cities across the U.S., allowing consumers other options for faster delivery, even if the Priority service is not available.

The move to increase delivery speeds across its footprint could help Instacart better compete with grocery delivery rivals, like Walmart and Amazon’s grocery businesses, as well as Target-owned Shipt.

It also shortly follows Amazon’s announcement last week that it would be shutting down its standalone Prime Now delivery app and website, to instead direct shoppers who want faster delivery on groceries to the Amazon app and website. However, in Amazon’s case, it’s promising 2-hour delivery windows on both Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods; not as low as 30 minutes. Meanwhile, Walmart’s membership-based delivery service, Walmart+, doesn’t currently guarantee same-day delivery even for its paying subscribers, as its time slots are on a first-come, first-serve basis. Among the big names, that leaves Shipt  — which offers same-day delivery, but not necessarily in 30 minutes.

The update may also make Instacart more competitive with other types of fast delivery businesses which don’t don’t serve grocery retailers — like goPuff’s ‘instant needs’ delivery service, Uber Eats Essentials, or DoorDash, which last year expanded to include convenience store items — including things like chips, ice cream, spices, packaged foods, and others that might have otherwise made for a quick store trip.

Instacart’s new service is rolling out now to customers in supported markets.

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Wayflyer raises $76M to provide ‘revenue-based’ financing to e-commerce merchants

Wayflyer, a revenue-based financing platform for e-commerce merchants, has raised $76 million in a Series A funding round led by Left Lane Capital.

“Partners” of DST Global, QED Investors, Speedinvest and Zinal Growth — the family office of Guillaume Pousaz (founder of Checkout.com) — also put money in the round. The raise comes just after Wayflyer raised $100 million in debt funding to support its cash advance product, and 14 months after the Dublin, Ireland-based startup launched its first product.

With an e-commerce boom fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, Wayflyer is the latest in a group of startups focused on the space that has attracted investor interest as of late. The company aims to help e-commerce merchants “unlock growth” by giving them access to working capital (from $10,000 up to $20 million) so they can improve cash flow and drive sales. For example, more cash can help these merchants do things like buy more inventory in bulk so they can meet customer demand and save money. 

In a nutshell, Wayflyer uses analytics and sends merchants cash to make inventory purchases or investments in their business. Those merchants then repay Wayflyer using a percentage of their revenue until the money is paid back (plus a fee charged for the cash advance). So essentially, the merchants are using their revenue to get financing, hence the term revenue-based financing. The advantage, Wayflyer says, is that companies make repayments as a percentage of their sales. So if they have a slow month, they will pay back less. So, there’s more flexibility involved than with other mechanisms such as traditional bank loans.

Where is the e-commerce app ecosystem headed in 2021?

Co-founder Aidan Corbett believes that in a crowded space, Wayflyer’s use of big data gives it an edge over competitors.

Corbett and former VC Jack Pierse spun Wayflyer out of a marketing analytics company that Corbett had also started, called Conjura, in September 2019.

“Jack came to me and said, ‘You should stop using our marketing analytics engine to do these big enterprise SaaS solutions, and instead use them to underwrite e-commerce businesses for short-term finance,’ ” Corbett recalls.

And so he did.

“We just had our heads down and started repurposing the platform for it to be an underwriting platform,” Corbett said. It launched in April 2020, doing about $600,000 in advances at the time. In March of 2021, Wayflyer did about $36 million in advances.

“So, it’s been a pretty aggressive kind of growth,” Corbett said.

Over the past six months alone, the company has seen its business grow 290% as it has deployed over $150 million of funding across 10 markets with a focus on the U.S., the United Kingdom and Australia. About 75% of its customers are U.S. based.

Wayflyer plans to use its new capital toward product development and global expansion with the goal of entering “multiple” new markets in the coming months. The company recently opened a sales office in Atlanta, and also has locations in the U.K., the Netherlands and Spain.

To Corbett, the company’s offering is more compelling than buy now, pay later solutions for consumers for example, in that it is funding the merchant directly and able to add services on top of that.

“There’s a lot more opportunity for companies like ourselves to differentiate because essentially, we focus on the merchants. And when we underwrite the merchant by getting data from the merchant, there’s a lot of additional services that you can put in on top,” Corbett explained. “Whereas with buy now, pay later, you get information on the consumer, and there’s not as much room to add additional services on top.”

For example, if a business requests an advance and either is not approved for one, or doesn’t choose to take it, Wayflyer’s analytics platform is free to anybody who signs up to help them optimize their marketing spend.

“This is a critical driver of value for e-commerce businesses. If you can’t acquire customers at a reasonable price, you’re not going to be around very long. And a lot of early-stage e-commerce businesses struggle with that,” Corbett said.

It also can pair up a merchant with a marketing analytics “specialist” to analyze its marketing performance or an inventory “specialist” to look at the current terms and price a business is getting from a supplier.

“Our focus from the very beginning is really supporting the merchants, not just providing them with working capital,” Corbett said.  

Another way the company claims to be different is in how it deploys funds. As mentioned above, merchants can pay the money back at varied terms, depending on how sales are going. The company makes money by charging a principal on advances, and then a “remittance rate” on revenues until the total amount is paid back.

“We tend to be more flexible than competition in this way,” Corbett said. “Also, some competitors will pay invoices on merchants’ behalf or give them a pre-charged card to use on advertising spend,” Corbett said. “We always give cash into a merchant’s account.” 

Wayflyer recently inked an agreement with Adobe Commerce, a partnership it said would provide a new channel to further amplify its growth with the goal of funding 8,000 e-commerce businesses in the first year of the partnership.

For his part, Left Lane Capital Partner Dan Ahrens said that his firm was impressed by Wayflyer’s “nuanced understanding of what will drive value for their clients.”

“The team’s focus, specialization, and deep analytical expertise within the e-commerce market also drives superior underwriting,” he told TechCrunch. “Their explosive growth has not come about by taking on undue risk. We are big believers that their underwriting will only improve with scale, and that Wayflyer will be able to compound its competitive advantages over time.”

As mentioned, this is an increasingly crowded space. Earlier this month, Settle announced it had raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Kleiner Perkins to give e-commerce and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies access to non-dilutive capital.

Settle raises $15M from Kleiner Perkins to give e-commerce companies more working capital

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TikTok Shopping increases 553% during pandemic

New research from Bazaarvoice’s Influenster community reveals that TikTok shopping has grown exponentially in popularity during the pandemic, with a 553% increase in the last 12 months – almost three times the growth of shopping on Instagram (189%) and Facebook (160%).

TikTok Shopping vs other Social Platforms

As a prime destination for visual content, Instagram is ahead in the social commerce game, with 64% of consumers shopping from the platform in the last year, followed by Facebook shopping (45%) and TikTok shopping (24%). The popularity of TikTok’s short-form video content sees it challenge the Facebook monopoly for consumer spend and attention. Another platform to watch out for is Pinterest, which has seen a 356% growth in consumers making purchases in the past 12 months.

Social commerce driving ecommerce

The research of 3,272 UK consumers finds that the influence of social media on consumers’ shopping preferences has grown significantly over the last year, with social platforms increasingly becoming the first port of call for shoppers looking to discover products and make purchases. There continues to be growing potential for social commerce, with over three quarters (79%) of consumers now more influenced to shop on social platforms than they were a year ago. This comes as the number of those ‘always’ shopping from their smartphone increased by a significant 214%, and those who ‘always’ shop from social media increased by 146%.

“The impact of the pandemic on social commerce is significant. Over the past year, commerce has become a cornerstone feature for social platforms, as consumers have spent more time on social apps.

Brands that have realised this opportunity have succeeded, as consumers are now more likely to see – and be influenced by – brand advertising, user generated content (UGC) and influencer posts.”
– Ed Hill, SVP EMEA, Bazaarvoice

Out with the old, in with the new

The ability to browse and discover new products and brands online has often been stumbling block for ecommerce in recent years, however 70% of consumers indicated that they had used social media to shop for a new brand in the last year. In fact, almost half (49%) had actually opted for a new brand over their go-to-brand thanks to social media. The relevancy of a product (47%) is the top driver behind why consumers chose a new brand from social media, followed by a product’s benefits, features or ingredients (41%), the visual content produced by the brand (27%), and ultimately price (27%).

Brand loyalty has been knocked somewhat in recent months as demand overtook availability, and now over half of consumers (56%) noted that they are ‘sometimes’ influenced to buy from an unknown brand based on having seen it on social media. For unknown brands, a product’s benefits, features or ingredients becomes increasingly important (45%), ahead of relevancy (43%) and price (29%).

“Product and brand discovery on social media is growing, and while this provides retailers with new opportunities to reach consumers, it also makes it all the more challenging for brands to build and maintain customer loyalty. To stand out on these platforms, brands and retailers must distribute content to all the places shoppers find their products, from in-store to search to social.

By incentivising consumers to buy their products on social, retailers can take them from the point of product inspiration and discovery, all the way through to purchase without even leaving an app. Social commerce isn’t simply about making posts shoppable though, retailers need to take customers from just buying online to truly shopping online with an engaging and inspirational shopping journey”
– Ed Hill, SVP EMEA, Bazaarvoice

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Italy’s Commerce Layer raises $16M led by Coatue for its headless commerce platform

“Headless” commerce — a set of tools that companies can use with their own customized front ends to build apps for selling goods and services — have become a huge business, not just because companies are seeing a bigger demand than ever before for people buying online, but because those companies are generally more focused in their own strategies around how and what they want to present to the world.

Today, one of the companies building headless tools is announcing a round of funding as it continues to expand its business.

Commerce Layer, which provides a set of APIs for businesses to build e-commerce apps with their own, customized front ends, has raised $16 million — money that it will be using to continue expanding its business and adding more commerce tools into its API library.

Currently Commerce Layer provides tools to build your own mobile, wearable and voice apps, point of sale solutions, subscriptions, and multi-vendor commerce models (as you might have in a marketplace), along with services like building your own shopping carts and turning print catalogues into interactive, “shoppable” digital experiences.

Filippo Conforti, the CEO and co-founder, said it plans to bring in a lot of new features. On the roadmap are new developer dashboard, a command-line interface (CLI) and order management system, and a hosted checkout application, metrics API, a reporting application, and better support for subscription and marketplace models.

This latest Series B round is being led by Coatue Management, with general partner Caryn Marooney (who has led comms at Facebook, among many other high-ranking comms roles) taking a seat on Commerce Layer’s board. Previous investors Benchmark and Mango Capital also participated. Benchmark led Commerce Layer’s Series A about a year ago.

That round came at a very key moment for the startup. Based just outside of Florence, Italy, and coming just on the heels of the first rush of Covid-19 cases in Europe — where for a time Italy was the epicenter of the pandemic — it was an early sign not just of how startups were able to keep working, but how investors were willing to back the best of them, even in times of uncertainty.

It also turned out that e-commerce became one of the big stories out of 2020, as more consumers went to digital channels to shop at a time when they couldn’t go to stores as easily, if at all.

That has definitely had a knock-on effect for Commerce Layer. Conforti told me that the company saw its revenues grow 6x in the last year — albeit it was starting from a small place, with only six customers on its books back in May 2020. It now has around 26 businesses using its tools, he said, including Chilly’s, Brioni, SumUp, Paradox Interactive and Coca Cola Embonor (a company that works under a Coca Cola license to make and distribute drinks in Chile and Bolivia).

The interesting thing about “headless” platforms is that they are becoming a much bigger part of the equation whe it comes to building and running e-commerce experiences. That seems to be a sign not just of how the sector continues to mature in terms of retailers and how they are looking for more than a plug-and-play, one-size-fits-most approach in their own strategies. It also speaks to the growing range of permutations of how and where people sell today, and the need for tools to address that.

While Commercetools is one of the bigger “headless” commerce providers, and whose founder even coined the term “headless commerce”, there are a number of others now building tools to help companies build more unique e-commerce experiences, including the likes of Spryker, Swell, Fabric, Chord, and Shogun. Even Shopify has stepped into the fray with Shopify Plus.

“eCommerce has become core to our everyday lives. As a result, big brands and enterprises need better ways to shift from retail and build exceptional online storefronts. We believe that Commerce Layer is building the API platform for this new category, and we’re incredibly proud to join them in pursuing their ambitious and exciting vision,” said Marooney in a statement.

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Brands risk losing customers after a bad returns experience

New research released by Klarna has revealed that over eight in ten (84%) online shoppers would turn their back on a retailer after a bad returns experience.

It’s no secret that in an attempt to avoid the Coronavirus people flocked online to do their shopping. Klarna’s data reveals that 39% of consumers have increased their online shopping habits since the pandemic which brings with it, increased reliance on returns and depending on how brands handle it, an increased risk of a bad returns experience.

With many big brands continuously expanding on their customer experience offerings and providing efficient and speedy services, the expectations of consumers begin to change. It’s clear that consumers expect brands to go above and beyond when they have a problem and when demand is high for the smoothest experience possible and some brands offering it without hesitation they begin to expect that across the board. Expectations can be the reason for patience depleting fast and frustrations rising quickly.

Consumers expect easy returns:

Consumers’ patience is waning when it comes to clunky or costly returns processes. 83% of online shoppers admit to getting frustrated by retailers which have an inefficient returns process, while 82% agree that retailers, in general, need to improve their returns capabilities.

Some of Brits’ biggest frustrations with returns stem from the inconvenience of slow, out of date or inflexible returns processes. Over a third (36%) cited slow refund processes as the most frustrating element of returning items bought online, highlighting the importance of flexible payment options. Other frustrations include having to print off return forms when they don’t have a printer (25%), the inconvenience of queuing to return at the post office (23%) and not being able to return items in store that they’ve bought online (21%). Some consumers will even keep an item they want to return because it is too much effort to return it, which also means they may avoid buying again from brands that don’t meet their needs.

Boost customer loyalty with easy returns

For those brands that get returns right, this can serve as a competitive advantage, helping to attract new customers, and boost customer loyalty. 84% of online shoppers agree they’re more likely to buy from and 86% are more likely to come back to online merchants who offer free returns. However, even a little added inconvenience can come at a cost: over two thirds (70%) of online shoppers state that if a preferred retailer stopped offering free returns, they might not shop with them.

“Nobody wants to be out of pocket as a result of items they don’t even choose to keep, so it’s no surprise that slow refund processes are the top frustration factor when it comes to returns. As reliance on returns grows, retailers need to ensure they’re offering a smooth, seamless process that meets the needs of today’s customers – considering everything from effortless logistics to flexible payment options. As our research suggests, those that fail to adapt will lose customers in the long term.”
– Alex Marsh, Head of Klarna UK

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Instagram launches a new section for shopping product drops

Instagram today announced it’s adding a new feature to help connect online shoppers to product drops through its app. Drops, which are a newer e-commerce trend, help sellers create buzz for forthcoming products in the days and weeks leading up to their availability. The products themselves are often only available in limited supplies or for a short period of time, increasing demand.

On Instagram, drops will now have their own destination inside the app at the top of the Shop tab, where consumers can discover, browse and shop all the latest product launches as well as view upcoming launches. Shoppers can also sign up to receive reminders about products they’re interested in from here, and look through products and collections from other drops that recently took place on Instagram.

Image Credits: screenshot of Drops on Instagram

Like other online shopping offered through Instagram, consumers can make their Drops purchases directly in the Instagram app itself via Checkout on Instagram, not by visiting third-party websites. This model will eventually allow Instagram to collect fees on purchases — something that’s become a more important part of Facebook and Instagram’s overall business model in the wake of Apple’s privacy crackdown on iOS apps that impacts Facebook’s ad revenues.

However, Instagram has temporarily waived its selling fees to both help businesses who are recovering from the last year of Covid. The move will also help it to gain ground in online shopping against new competitors, including TikTok.

Brands on Instagram had already been running drops before today, following Instagram’s release of a product reminders feature back in 2019 that allowed consumers to get notified when an item they were interested in became available for purchase. To date, brands across fashion, beauty, streetwear and others have leveraged the feature, the company says, including Hill House Home, Dragun Beauty, adidas, and others.

The new Drops location simply organizes the product launches in one place to make it easier to browse and shop. Instagram tells us it’s curating the featured drops in this section. To be considered, brands need to use the product launch feature which is available to businesses on Checkout with Instagram.

At launch, some of the drops available include today’s Drake x NOCTA ‘Cardinal Stock’ collection and upcoming drops like Wren + Glory hand-painted summer collection and Charlotte Tilbury Exclusive Pillow Talk Lips & Dreams Lashes Kit. This week, there are five total drops available. This number will vary from week to week as Instagram continues to test the new feature, the company tells us.

Image Credits: screenshot of Drops on Instagram

On an individual brand’s page inside Drops, consumers can view info like when the product became available, pricing, and other item details. They can also bookmark the item to add it to a wishlist or share the drop with a friend through Instagram’s direct messaging feature. From the top of the Drops page, users can return to their Cart or Wishlist at any time to complete the checkout — assuming they aren’t too late, of course.

In addition, the brand’s Live shopping can be scheduled to align with their product drop. When the brand goes live for a drop, there’s an on-screen countdown and confetti animation when the product becomes available.

The new feature is currently only available in the Instagram app in the U.S., and only on mobile devices (iOS and Android), not the web.

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Treet, with $2.8 million in seed funding, gets brands involved in the resale market

Treet, a company rethinking the resale retail market, announced the close of a $2.8 million seed round today. The financing comes from Bling Capital, Matchstick Ventures, Techstars, BABM Ventures, BBG Ventures, Green Meadow, Interlace Ventures, V1.VC, and Alante Capital.

Despite the fact that selling old clothes is the most sustainable, and most financially beneficial way to dispose of them, the process can be super tedious for both sellers and buyers.

Treet’s approach to simplifying its market and lowering consumer friction is to go through brands. Essentially, Treet helps brands set up their own resale sites where buyers and sellers can list and find items. Because Treet is tied in with the brand itself, sellers can easily list their items based on SKU and buyers can trust that the items they’re browsing are the real deal.

For brands, they get the chance to own their secondhand market and potentially gain new customers. The company says that 30 percent of buyers on Treet haven’t purchased directly from the brand before.

Involving brands benefits Treet in a big way, too. Brands are best positioned to know who has their items, and can send emails and messaging encouraging resale through Treet. They also have the distribution to put potential customers on to the resale site.

Treet gives sellers two options to redeem their funds. If they choose cash, a ten percent cut goes to the brand and a ten percent cut goes to Treet. If they choose to redeem via brand credit, only Treet takes 10 percent.

The startup’s customer list currently includes Boyish, Coclico, Altar, and époque évolution, with Goodfair and Birdy Grey launching soon.

“The greatest challenge is brands being hesitant about getting into resale,” said cofounder and CEO Jake Disraeli. “For a brand, promoting a used item with lesser margins is kind of a scary thought. We’re starting to prove out that they can expand their potential customer base and give brands the chance to participate alongside their customers who are reselling items on third-party platforms anyway.”

The clothing and fashion startup market has been active in recent quarters. The Real Real went public back in 2019, Poshmark went public last year, while fellow resale company ThreadUp held an IPO this year, and UK-based Lyst raised $85 million the other week. Treet’s funding fits neatly into the theme.

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Yalo raises $50M to build ‘c-commerce’ services for chat apps like WhatsApp

Facebook has long been working on raising WhatsApp’s profile as a channel for businesses to interact with (and sell to) their customers. Today, a startup that has built a suite of tools for retailers and others to build and run those services over WhatsApp and other messaging platforms is announcing growth funding to address that opportunity.

Yalo, which describes itself as a c-commerce (“chat commerce”) startup building tools for businesses to use messaging apps as part of their customer outreach and sales strategies, has raised $50 million, funding that it will be using to expand its services with a specific focus on emerging markets like Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Yalo already counts big brands like Unilever, Nestle, Coca-Cola and Walmart among the customers using its platform for sales and marketing efforts. In total that speaks to potentially an audience of 350 million, although Yaho doesn’t disclose how many people are actually using Yalo services as a part of that.

The funding is being led by B Capital, with participation from other, undisclosed, investors. Yalo, which recently rebranded from Yalochat, is on a funding roll at the moment: the company’s last round was in August, a $15 million Series B. B Capital’s investment is interesting, given Yalo’s focus on building tools for businesses to better utilize Facebook apps to interact with customers: the VC firm was co-founded by Eduardo Saverin, one of Facebook’s co-founders.

CEO Javier Mata said in an emailed interview that the reason for the swift funding was because of how fast business has been growing in the last year, part of the bigger boom for e-commerce overall.

“Covid fast forwarded us into the future and with it the need for conversational commerce increased significantly,” he said. “It went from being [one] digital commerce channel to becoming the main one.” He said that some of Yalo’s customers are seeing 80% of their sales happening on top of (and inside) messaging apps, a huge shift when you consider how reliant some brands in the consumer packaged goods sector have in the past been on more physical retail channels, whether that was a supermarket, a corner shop or a vending machine. “The market demand increased and we raised to continue overdelivering to customers.”

He added that Yalo wasn’t looking for more funding, “but then we saw an opportunity to accelerate our growth, so we did it. Everything we do is to provide value to our customers and in this case we decided to accelerate our product development so that customers would get conversational marketing, payments, and the world would get no-code builder to create all kind of conversational app sooner.”

Yalo is not disclosing its valuation with this round, CEO Javier Mata said in an email interview. The startup has raised $75 million to date, with other past investors including NXTP from Argentina and Sierra Ventures.

Founded in Mexico, now based in San Francisco, and currently active in Mexico, India, Brazil and the U.S., Yalo’s strategy is to play into the role messaging apps have taken on for consumers in many markets, but especially emerging markets, where many people “live” when on their phones, using them not just to chat to friends, but to interact with a wide range of services.

This is also something that messaging companies like Facebook, taking a page from companies like WeChat and Line in Asia, have been looking to cultivate. Over the years, WeChat and Line have leveraged their success as basic messaging apps to build out wider “super apps” covering all kinds of other forms of communication, as well as a plethora of services like payments, shopping, entertainment and news, both build by the apps themselves as well as by third parties, and now used by hundreds of millions of people.

WhatsApp is Yalo’s biggest platform “by a lot,” said Mata, with SMS in second place, so this is where a lot of its focus is right now.

While WhatsApp has been building out the facility to provide more services, Yalo has built a platform that sits in between brands and the apps themselves in order to use them. Its service — which works with other apps as well (it describes itself as platform-agnostic and able to be embedded in any messaging app) — lets agencies or the brands themselves plan and run marketing and sales campaigns, offer helpdesk services and take payments, giving customers the option to create “micro apps” to live in various messaging environments.

The emerging market focus for Yalo seems to mirror the role that messaging and mobile have taken in these markets overall. In many cases, consumers in developing economies skipped straight over using traditional computers and went online for the first time with cheap smartphones. As a result, that paved the way for consumers, whose digital consumption was more focused on mobile screens, to being more receptive and likely to use messaging apps for more than just messaging.

Mata believes that while emerging markets may have paved the way, though, more developed economies will follow.

“We went from brick and mortar to desktop apps, from apps to web apps, from web apps to mobile apps, and now the future/present is about conversational apps,” Mata said. “Conversational apps are the future because they take advantage of the messaging app that people have already downloaded and they do not need users to install or learn a new ux. It is easier to adopt a new technology when you do not need to replace a lot of legacy technology and you can just leapfrog. That is exactly what emerging markets are doing.”

He believes that “the US and other markets will get there but they will take longer, and eventually the lines between e-commerce and c-commerce will blur. You are starting to see that with text marketing, which is only a tiny fraction of conversational and it is already huge. It’s not a surprise that China is further ahead in digital than the US and conversational commerce is the predominant way of commerce through WeChat. Emerging markets leapfrog when it comes to adopting new tech.”

In the meantime, BCG estimates that c-commerce is already a $35 billion market, and will grow to $130 billion by 2025 in emerging markets alone, accounting for 60% of all digital commerce.

The question will be, then, that if this really takes off, whether the likes of Facebook will try to own the integration experience as much as owning the platform itself, or whether those who have helped to build more interesting commerce experiences on the traditional web — companies like Shopify and Magento, but also Amazon — might try to own this space too, presenting more competition down the line for Yalo.

Not an issue for now, investors say.

“Yalo has become the leading conversational commerce company, revolutionizing the way large enterprises engage with their customers and enabling them to transact through chat applications. We have been impressed with their execution and are very pleased to expand our relationship with them by leading their Series C round.” said Saverin in a statement.

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