Seattle-based retail technology provider Swiftly has raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by BRV Capital Management (BRV Capital), which is its second $100 million financing round in less than six months. After the latest round of funding the startup has become the latest Seattle-area startup to reach a $1 billion valuation.
In less than six months, the startup has more than doubled its funding to $210 million, as it continues to provide brick-and-mortar retailers with the technology they need to build strong digital customer relationships. The startup enables retailers to compete against retail behemoths that have deployed custom-built advanced tools in the retail market that are out of reach for the majority of retailers.
“Our mission is to empower brick-and-mortar retailers to move from analog to algorithms, as winners in this new era of commerce will be determined by how fast they can reinvent their business to capture shoppers digitally and monetize those digital relationships,” said Henry Kim, co-founder and CEO of Swiftly.
“We are grateful to BRV Capital for their support that will enable us to turn today’s brick-and-mortar retailers into tomorrow’s omnichannel leaders,” added Kim.
Swiftly will use a portion of the new funding to expand beyond the grocery industry. The company is interested in physical stores that sell home goods, home improvement, electronics, fashion, and sporting goods.
Swiftly is democratizing the technologies
Swiftly, which was founded in 2018, now controls roughly 10 percent of the grocery store market, according to Sean Turner, the company’s CTO. The 150-person startup serves 22,500 stores, each of which is run by a company with $1 billion or more in annual revenue.
Swiftly enables retailers of all sizes to increase their bottom line and compete in an exponentially crowded market, all while dealing with a slowing economy and rising inflation. The platform enables traditional retailers to compete more effectively and grow digitally.
It provides branded phone apps to brick-and-mortar grocers in order to help retailers collect highly valuable customer data and earn advertising dollars while improving the shopping experience. By scanning products and paying with their phones, the apps can help customers find what they’re looking for in the aisles, recall previous purchases, and skip lines.
Swiftly-powered apps collect data, which is then used to sell highly targeted advertising to food brands competing for shoppers’ attention. Turner added that it also helps brick-and-mortar grocers gain ground against e-commerce behemoths like Amazon and Walmart, which are heavily investing in their own grocery-related products and services.
“Swiftly is enabling retailers to lead the next inflection point in e-commerce and digital advertising by harnessing the power of their first-party data, analytics and personalization to supercharge their shopping experience and retail media offerings to drive margin-rich topline growth. We are delighted to partner with Swiftly on their mission to help retailers compete with retail giants globally,” said Brian Lee, Partner at BRV Capital.
