In recent years there has been tremendous growth in e-commerce but through the pandemic the space was pushed to grow even more. Alone in 2021, 2.14 billion people shopped online which has caught the attention of VC’s and startups who are now exploring even more ways to take advantage of the boom.
“Elevate Brands, which acquires and operates Amazon fulfillment businesses, announced a refinancing and upsizing of its credit facility to $400 million, led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. This brings the company’s funding total to $590 million and will enable Elevate to scale its portfolio to 45 brands, from 32, this year.”, reported by Tech Crunch. Elevate’s funding was structured as a mix of debt and equity, which has become common for e-commerce companies raising large rounds looking to take advantage of the roll-up opportunity.
Expect VC’s to look at a essential e-commerce and business metrics to better understand how well a company is performing. These include:
- Gross margin
- Sales growth year to date
- Sales revenue
- Customer retention
- Customer acquisition cost
- Churn rate
- Average order value
You can also expect them to look for ways you are able to prove a sustainable advantage over competitors since these days it can be easy to replicate products. “Given Amazon and other large retailers’ expertise, we believe that some of the most exciting D2C companies focus on brand and customer experience. This is often a combination of world-class products, great brand positioning (including knowing who their customer is), and great technology infrastructure that leaves the consumer feeling like they had a world-class customer experience. For many of these companies, it is incredibly important that the full customer journey reflects the brand ethos, as that will be reflected in the customer lifetime value.” Fabric inc.
FJ Labs
- Location: New York, United States
- About: FJ Labs is a stage-agnostic New York-based investment firm with a global focus. FJ Labs focuses on marketplaces and consumer-facing startups.
- Thesis: FJ Labs is a stage-agnostic New York-based investment firm with global focus. FJ Labs focuses on marketplaces and consumer facing startups.
- Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
- Recent Investments:
- Weaver
- Topsort
- Reebelo
To learn more about FJ Labs, check out their Visible Connect Profile.
GGV Capital
- Location: Menlo Park, California, United States
- About: GGV Capital is a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the last 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in social/internet, commerce/new retail, frontier tech, and enterprise/SaaS. GGV has invested in over 280 companies with more than 30 companies valued at more than $1 billion.
- Investment Stages: Series A, Series B
- Recent Investments:
- Wing Security
- OmniML
- OwnIt
To learn more about GGV Capital, check out their Visible Connect Profile.
Kleiner Perkins
- Location: Menlo Park, California, United States
- About: Kleiner Perkins is a venture capital firm specializing in investing in early-stage, incubation, and growth companies.
- Thesis: To be the first call for founders who want to make history and to partner with them as company builders in pursuit of that goal.
- Investment Stages: Series A, Series B, Growth
- Recent Investments:
- EarnUp
- Upstream
- EasyKnock
To learn more about Kleiner Perkins, check out their Visible Connect Profile.
Lyra Ventures
- Location: Singapore, SG
- About: We are venture capitalists investing in companies that use innovative technology to reinvent the business of fashion and retail. Our team and network of advisors have deep domain expertise in our industries of focus. We channel this knowledge into each of our investments, working alongside our founders, particularly early on in their company’s lifecycle.
- Thesis: We support visionary and disciplined entrepreneurs who are transforming the industries of fashion and retail via the creation of high growth and resilient businesses.
- Investment Stages: Seed, Series A
- Recent Investments:
- Threedium
- LePrix
- THE LIST
To learn more about Lyra Ventures check out their Visible Connect Profile.
14W
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- About: 14W is a venture capital firm specializing in consumer internet, marketplace, ecommerce, CPG, and media.
- Investment Stages: Seed
- Recent Investments:
- Exoticca
- Lyst
- Wallapop
To learn more about 14W check out their Visible Connect Profile.
PayU
- Location: Poznań, Wielkopolskie, Poland
- About: PayU is a leading financial services provider in global growth markets. We enable billions of people to buy and sell online.
- Thesis: One of the leading fintech investors globally, combining the expertise of high growth companies with our own unique local knowledge and technology to ensure that our customers have access to the best financial services.
- Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Recent Investments:
- Lucky
- Remitly
- Indiagold
To learn more about PayU check out their Visible Connect Profile.
Act Venture Capital
- Location: Dublin, Ireland
- About: ACT is Ireland’s leading independent venture capital company and they have a very experienced and successful investment team. They provide capital to growth-oriented private companies in the range of €750K to €15M. Larger sums can be provided in syndication with their institutional investors. In December 2002, ACT closed its third fund at €170 million. ACT now manages €350 million through a number of venture capital funds.
- Thesis: Investing in people, markets and technology.
- Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
- Recent Investments:
- Buymie
- Provizio
- Umba
To learn more about Act Venture Capital check out their Visible Connect Profile.
Activant Capital
- Location: Connecticut, United States
- About: Act VC is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with founders starting out, and established teams scaling their growth. We have raised €487m across multiple funds to support this goal. We look for innovative, category-defining companies in large markets. We help founders build and scale these leveraging the experience of backing over 200 founders before. We work closely with them in this process. Over the past 25 years, we have invested in over 120 companies and built a broad global network.
- Investment Stages: Series A, Series B, Series C
- Recent Investments:
- Kargo
- Hydrow
- Bolt
To learn more about Activant Capital, check out their Visible Connect Profile.
Ascend
- Location: Washington, United States
- About: Pre-seed investor in marketplace, e-commerce/D2C, and B2B software startups in the Pacific Northwest.
- Investment Stages: Pre-Seed
- Recent Investments:
- ADYN
- Attunely
- Bean Box
To learn more about Ascend, check out their Visible Connect Profile.
A.Capital
- Location: Menlo Park, California, United States
- About: a_capital provides resources and counsel to the creators, inventors and entrepreneurs who are building a new future.
- Thesis: Investing in consumer and enterprise technology companies.
- Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
- Recent Investments:
- Unit21
- Walnut
- Replit
To learn more about A.Capital, check out their Visible Connect Profile.
Additional Resources
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- Personalization and zero-party data become critical.
- E-commerce embraces web3 and NFTs, but what will that look like?
- Live shopping goes mainstream.
- Slow but gradual improvement to the supply chain.
- Jungle Scout is an eCommerce platform that helps entrepreneurs leverage Amazon to sell products. Their platform offers customers solutions to manage inventory, conduct product research, find suppliers, and more. Though the company is mainly Amazon-centric now, they are eyeing expansion to cover solutions for other online retail platforms, such as Walmart.com.
- Consumer Trends Report | Q1 2022
- Society Brands– Society Brands embraces the entrepreneur and provides them with a network of support and a rich pool of industry-leading resources to help them take their brands to the next level and create real value for a great exit.
- Elevate Brands– A New York- and Austin-based startup that acquires and runs third-party Amazon merchants.
- Berlin Brands Group (BBG)- One of the new wave of e-commerce startups hoping to build lucrative economies of scale around buying up smaller brands that sell on marketplaces like Amazon and using technology to run and scale them more efficiently.
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