HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cart.com, the first end-to-end e-commerce services provider delivering a fully integrated and owned suite of software, services and infrastructure to scale businesses online, today announced the closing of its $25 million Series A round of financing, led by venture capital firms Mercury Fund and Arsenal Growth, following its initial $20 million Seed funding by Bearing Ventures. The round also includes funding from Moonshots Capital and Scarlet Venture Fund. The funding is the second round in five months, totaling over $45M, and will further power Cart.com to respond to rapidly increasing customer demand, make key hires, and accelerate growth as the world’s pioneer E-commerce-as-a-Service (ECaaS) provider in the ecommerce services space.
Cart.com was co-founded in September 2020 by CEO Omair Tariq, former executive at Home Depot and COO of Blinds.com, and Executive Chairman Jim Jacobsen, co-founder and former CEO of RTIC Outdoors. Motivated by the gaps they saw across the e-commerce value chain as they built and grew e-commerce brands from startups to nine-figure household names, Tariq and Jacobsen created Cart.com to help businesses of any size to grow their e-commerce capabilities with less friction than the fragmented plug-in and vendor intensive approach available today. The founders combine their e-commerce expertise with an experienced leadership team to provide brands the full spectrum of e-commerce capabilities as a smarter, more cost-effective, and more brand-centric alternative to existing industry players.
“The current e-commerce offerings favor the service providers, not the brands. We are on a mission to flip that dynamic and put the sellers back in charge of their e-commerce journey and their customer relationships. Our team will continue to obsess over our brands’ success, so they can obsess over their customers. This is what will create tremendous long term shareholder value and be the true measure of our success,” said Omair Tariq, CEO of Cart.com.
“We know the pain points brands face in the e-commerce value chain because we have experienced them firsthand. We built Cart.com to solve those problems and deliver unequaled value for brands from a single platform,” said Jim Jacobsen, Executive Chairman of Cart.com.
Cart.com is built from a brand-first perspective because the company understands that every brand’s journey is unique. The Cart.com e-commerce platform can meet the needs of each business and help accelerate their growth during any point in their e-commerce journey—from marketing services and automation to powerful storefront software to inventory management and fulfillment.
“It was clear within minutes of meeting Omair that the vision and mission to democratize e-commerce and give merchants the freedom to grow unhinged was something we wanted to support,” said John Trbovich, General Partner, Arsenal Growth. “The explosive demand Cart.com has seen is validation of the impact their multi-tiered solution is having in the marketplace and we are proud to back such a strong operating team enabling brands of all sizes to move faster and think bigger.”
The company has an aggressive growth strategy aimed at delivering immediate and game-changing value to brands. To accomplish this, Cart.com has made five acquisitions to date including online storefront software platform AmeriCommerce, a storage supplies business with nation-wide fulfillment capabilities, and two full service digital marketing agencies. Brands are realizing the benefits of a true end-to-end solution as the company has over 800 customers in the pipeline since the start of 2021 without yet launching outbound marketing efforts to attract customers to Cart.com.
“Our online store revenue now blows away the revenue we get from Amazon and we have control over the messaging, control over our customer interactions, and control over the entire experience,” said Brian Gluck, owner of ProjectorScreen.com. “There is no other solution out there with as low of a barrier to entry and as broad of an offering to help my business grow as what Cart.com provides. Our sales are up over 100% year-to-date and we are adding in additional digital marketing services from Cart.com. Our messaging and our incredible customer experience are two of the biggest reasons we are one of the fastest growing independent projection specialist companies in the country, and Cart.com allows us to grow and scale while retaining control over these critical aspects of our business.”
“Competition in the e-commerce market is reaching a precipice, and only those companies with the pedigree, vision, technology and the been-there-done-that perspective will be able to truly shift the surge away from market monopolies and provide power back to the brands themselves to the benefit of the businesses and their customers,” said Blair Garrou, co-founder and Managing Director, Mercury Fund. “Our financial commitment illustrates our confidence in the mission and strategy of Cart.com. The team assembled has incredible opportunity to be a true market leader and pioneer E-Commerce-as-a-Service (ECaaS) in the e-commerce services space.”
For more information, visit www.cart.com.
About Cart.com
Cart.com is the first end-to-end ecommerce solutions provider delivering a fully integrated and owned suite of software, expert services and infrastructure to scale businesses online. Founded in September 2020 by experienced ecommerce experts, Cart.com is on a mission to put brands back in charge of their ecommerce journey and their customer relationships as the premiere Ecommerce-as-a-Service (ECaaS) provider in the ecommerce services space. Cart.com offers a wealth of business solutions – including online store software, digital marketing services, fulfillment services, financial services, and customer service capabilities so brands of any size are able to work with a single partner to attain the same capabilities as some of the world’s largest companies.
About Mercury Fund
Mercury is an early-stage venture capital firm. With over $300 million under management, Mercury focuses on entrepreneurs and innovation originating in Middle America. Our investment themes target SaaS, marketplaces, and data platforms allowing the digital transformation of markets and industries. Nearly 20 years ago, Mercury recognized the rise of entrepreneurs and innovation in Middle America. Our venture investment strategy leverages our unparalleled network of platform partners, startup development organizations, corporate innovation partners, and co-investors to assist entrepreneurs with the resources they need to rapidly scale their businesses. Our team has spent our professional careers advising, mentoring, and investing in entrepreneurs. We believe now, more than ever, Middle America represents a great venture capital opportunity. For more information, please visit www.mercuryfund.com and follow us on Twitter @mercuryfund.
About Arsenal Growth Equity
Arsenal Growth Equity is an execution-stage private equity firm based in Florida with offices in Palo Alto, and Boston. Founded in 1999, Arsenal invests in emerging software companies across a myriad of sectors—targeting capital efficient, high growth businesses where they can leverage their operational and strategic network to help founders scale. Prior e-commerce and logistically intensive investments include: FattMerchant, Plumslice, MyUS, BoxC, Thrive Market, Second Nature and Orderbot.
