India to be cornerstone of future expansion in Asia Pacific
Mountain View, California-headquartered CommerceIQ, the algorithmic platform that helps consumer brands win in e-commerce, said it will use the US$60 million Series C funding for 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 funding will also used to significantly scale its India operations.
The company, with more than 110 members of its team employed in Bangalore, will be hiring experts for Software and Product Development, Data Science & Analytics, Product Operations and Support as it significantly scales India operations.
“With a 40% growth in e-commerce this year alone, it is imperative that brands apply automation and machine learning to manage their business online,” Guru Hariharan, CEO of CommerceIQ, said in a release on 22 June 2021 from Bengaluru.
“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 automations at scale,” he said.
“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 elaborated.
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 share of voice (20% on average), pump up incremental sales (40% on average) and enhance profitability (20% on average). The company has raised US$81 million to date, which portends its future growth as the category leader for algorithmic e-commerce management.
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.
“We’re delighted to support CommerceIQ’s mission of fueling their customers’ e-commerce successes,” said Nikitas Koutoupes, Managing Director at Insight Partners who will be joining CommerceIQ’s board.
“It is not necessarily obvious that most of 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 share of the e-commerce market in a post-pandemic world. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome CommerceIQ to the Insight portfolio,” said Koutoupes.
CommerceIQ is the only industry solution that ties together multiple functions – sales, advertising, supply chain operations – and drives large scale automations across the e-commerce operation.
“Digital commerce is one of our key strategic priorities,” added Surabhi Pokhriyal, Worldwide Director, Global Digital Commerce at the Colgate-Palmolive Company.
“We know that it is crucial to win 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,” said Pokhriyal.
CommerceIQ leverages machine learning, analytics and automations to optimize the e-commerce channel across supply chain, marketing and sales operations functions to win the consumer at the moment of purchase and drive profitable market share growth. CommerceIQ has been adopted by leading consumer brands accounting for billions of dollars in e-commerce sales and marketing spend, including Kellogg’s, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive and Spectrum Brands. These brands rely on CommerceIQ’s machine-based commerce technology and business processes, which are purpose-built to tune e-commerce algorithms, collaborate and share data-driven insights in real-time in response to changing variables across hundreds of products on leading retail sites. Using CommerceIQ as a single source of truth, customers have driven 40% increase in incremental sales, 20% improvement in profitability and 20% increase in Share of Voice on Amazon and other online marketplaces.
The company is headquartered in Mountain View, CA and maintains a significant India presence, with more than 110 of its team employed in its Bangalore location.
Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than US$30 billion in capital commitments. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create opportunity for all. #investment #banking #technology #digital #AI #ML #brands /fiinews.com
