Announcing our $27 million Series B funding round, led by OMERS Ventures, with participation from existing investors Whitecap Venture Partners and Round 13 Capital.
Almost nine years ago today, Stef Maynard, Jay Myers, Eric Boisjoli and I set out to fill a gap in the ecommerce market. Now as we announce the close of our $27 million Series B funding round, I am proud that Bold remains dedicated to pushing the boundaries of commerce. It’s been an amazing adventure so far — growing a team at Bold that thrives on the success of the brands we serve, and has a genuine love for the culture we foster.
Extending ecommerce platform capabilities
As ecommerce store owners ourselves, what began as scratching an itch with our first app on Shopify, led to 20 more apps serving 90,000 customers across 170 countries, and Kickbooster — a leading crowdfunding affiliate company. Our simple focus was to extend platform capabilities with technology that helps brands grow, and to deliver world class service. We discovered brands were looking for our solutions on other platforms, and expanded to BigCommerce, WooCommerce and commercetools, shifting to API-first and growing our partner network.
Accelerating digital transformation
When Covid-19 shook the world a year ago, it accelerated ecommerce growth and brought fundamental change in customer shopping patterns and expectations. All around us we saw brands adapting, evolving, and expanding. Businesses faced immense challenges that fueled us to be better, and help them adapt to a changing commerce landscape. For some that meant rolling out buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) or curbside solutions in record time. For others it was quickly enabling new commerce channels. While many businesses continue to struggle, those that embraced technology have a shot at emerging stronger than ever. These challenging times also brought out the best in our culture — with Bold employees volunteering to help local businesses get online, and launching a buy local initiative to match shoppers with local businesses offering pick up and delivery options.
Spotlight on the transaction experience
As the need for brands to evolve their commerce experience becomes increasingly evident, the foundation for Bold is focused on transaction experiences — anchored by Checkout, which works as the orchestration layer between surrounding technologies. Bold offers the only customizable checkout with built-in subscriptions and pricing engine modules, along with a growing network of third-party integrations, and the ability to connect with any open API technology. Flexibility combined with pre-built integrations, allows brands to curate any transaction experience imaginable.
So why raise now? We went back and forth on this as we were on track to be back to profitability following our Series A investments. However the events of the past year showed us the positive
We are seeing the deconstruction of all-in-one ecommerce platforms, the adoption of headless commerce, and technology innovation applied throughout the commerce journey. We believe we can elevate any checkout to evolve a brand’s transaction experience. It’s not just about taking payments. It’s the handshake between the brand and the customer at any touchpoint, and it should be powerful, consistent across all channels, and as unique as the brand. Bold is in a position to unify all channels through our transaction experience, linking back to ecommerce platforms or operations infrastructure. There is so much opportunity that awaits, and continuing to grow our team (yes, we’re hiring) will enable us to invest more in product development, expanding our partner marketplace, better serving our customers, and much more.
“We believe we can elevate any checkout to evolve the brand’s transaction experience. It’s not just about taking payments. It’s the handshake between the brand and the customer at any touch point and it should be powerful, consistent across all channels, and as unique as the brand.”
Powering commerce anywhere
We believe in a future where point of interest will drive commerce — the idea that a customer will be able to buy wherever they engage with a brand. Some call it frictionless, we call it owning your commerce. The one piece that unifies and ties it all together is the transaction experience: it’s integrating our pricing engine with a retailer’s POS to eliminate multiple platforms managing pricing; it’s placing our checkout in any online or offline experience for a seamless commerce experience right through to back of house efficiencies and improved in-store returns processing; it’s layering in a customized subscription offering for a personalized experience that deepens customer loyalty, and more! The use cases for owning your commerce are endless and growing. For example, brands are looking to connect through more channels including social, voice and IoT. Ecommerce tailwinds continue and new channels are becoming mainstream — and Bold can serve as the hub for all these transaction experiences.
Building an enduring company
It’s a remarkable accomplishment to go from four guys working in a basement to standing together with over 400 passionate, intelligent, and committed Builders that strive every day to make a positive
Thank you to Whitecap Ventures and Round13 for believing in us and helping build a foundation that will enable us to scale. And welcome to Laura Lenz to the Board and to the entire OMERS Ventures team — we are thrilled to have your support in pursuing our Bold vision.
To our partners, who add tremendous value working together to serve customers, we are grateful. And to our amazing retailers, brands, and entrepreneur customers — thank you! You are at the core of every decision we make at Bold and we commit to using this investment to further your success. There is still much work to be done and we are excited to advance our mission to enable you to own your commerce.
Special thanks to our friends at Bold Commerce for their insights on this topic.
