Parker Closes $20M Series B in Push to Serve Ecommerce Firms

Milan Ray

Parker, which helps ecommerce firms optimize their finances, has raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Peter Thiel-backed Valar Ventures. Y Combinator also participated, as the New York-based startup raised its equity funding to $58 million. It has additionally raised $120 million in debt to support its operations.

Parker’s founding duo of Milan Ray and Yacine Sibous earned a place in the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 listing under the category of Enterprise Technology. The two university dropouts met at a Silicon Valley bootcamp of famed French hacking school 42. Ray attended University of Michigan for a computer science degree, while Sibous studied physics and computer science at Canada’s McGill University.

Multiple Pivots

Ray and Sibous initially fashioned Parker to be an analytics platform that would help ecommerce companies identify profitable models. On the strength of this proposal, Parker got an entry into Y Combinator’s program in 2019. But in later years, the duo changed its mind multiple times before arriving at its present business.

“[W]e did what a lot of founders do when they get spooked. We pivoted. Multiple times. Like, 10,” Ray wrote in a blog post on Parker’s website, citing several reasons including fear of competition for making the switches.

Today, Parker’s key offering is a credit card that offers up to 90 days’ credit, helping ecommerce shore up finances and better manage costly inventory. It also provides other banking products for budgeting and cash flow management. Parker’s customers include Caraway, Venus et Fleur and Dolls Kill, for whom it has processed more than $550 million.

Cash as Key to Growth
“Rolling terms help you keep more money in your bank account. This extra cash flow lets you buy more inventory and run more ads, helping your business grow bigger and faster,” said Ray in a recent LinkedIn post.

Sibous told Forbes the duo realized that although there were a lot of great tools to help build an ecommerce business, the market lacked a suite of financial products that were specifically designed for business owners’ needs. “We thought there was this opportunity to build a banking platform for these ecommerce companies,” he said.