Ecommerce platform Moteefe raises $11M, goes live with enterprise solution for retail

●      Retailers of all sizes use Moteefe’s turnkey solution to launch ecommerce stores to sell branded and customisable items produced on demand globally, with no upfront costs, infrastructure or inventory requirements

●      The business was recently named the UK’s 4^th fastest growing technology company (and number 1 in the ecommerce category) in the 2019 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 for growth rates of 9,000%+. It also ranked 12th in Deloitte’s T echnology Fast 500 EMEA Winners 2019 list

●      This round follows a $5M Series A fundraise announced in February 2020 and brings Moteefe to $23m in total funding

September 2020 – Moteefe, the ecommerce platform providing infrastructure, customisation and global fulfilment for retailers of all sizes, has successfully completed an $11M funding round. New investor BGF led the round with participation from existing investors including Gresham House and Force Over Mass Capital.

More than 5,000 retailers, from indie entrepreneurs to high street brands, use Moteefe’s platform to manage the sale, on demand production and fulfilment of new products. The fully flexible end-to-end ecommerce platform enables anyone to set up an online store or offer customised products on their own site in minutes. Products are produced immediately following a customer order.

“We were impressed with how Moteefe’s unique platform capabilities have allowed it to continue on its fast growth trajectory during the first part of 2020 despite the Covid 19 pandemic. This performance has underlined the demand in the market for their technology as the global retail landscape undergoes a massive transformation” said Daina Spedding, investor for BGF. “What Moteefe represents is truly visionary – bringing together the entire ecosystem from store to just-in-time production and delivery – to solve the challenges retailers are facing getting to grips with the new speed, quality, choice and sustainability expectations of consumers. Those retailers don’t have the time to piece individual technologies together.”

Large retailers are turning to Moteefe to offer customised products for their customers. They are also working with the platform to efficiently test new product styles and categories at both small and large scale, which their often outdated systems and supply chains are ill-equipped to handle.

With no minimum production run, Moteefe’s platform removes the risk, wastage and upfront cost normally associated with testing ideas, geographies and markets, enabling the rapid scale up and production of successful products to meet demand. It also improves supply chain efficiency and sustainability by working with local fulfilment partners to minimise shipping distances.

Retailers of all sizes have total flexibility: they can use the Moteefe platform either as a fully integrated end to end service, or just pick and choose the parts they need. And as Moteefe is whitelabelled, the retailer owns the customer relationship and can use the data to drive repeat sales.

“At a time when global retail has been suffering and supply chains have virtually ground to a halt, we have seen a doubling in users and strong customer demand for our retailers’ products. This increased demand enabled us to grow our team and increase our production throughput, benefitting our entire network and creating high quality jobs internationally,” said Mathijs Eefting, CEO of Moteefe. “We have moved beyond our original goal to help anyone set up a store and sell globally. We now are able to support innovative retailers of all sizes to respond to entirely new ecommerce demands and opportunities as customers continue to walk away from old fashioned brick and mortar sales store environments.”

Growth and momentum

Since the start of 2020, Moteefe has made significant leaps. It has expanded with 40 new hires and three new executives whose experience will support the company’s expansion and enterprise proposition: Head of Product Nir Ehrlich; People Director Abbas Jeraj and senior innovation leader Peter Dingle. Moteefe now boasts a network of 20 production and fulfilment partners across Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and Brazil, enabling retailers and entrepreneurs from around the world to easily tap international demand.

Showing 150% growth in H1 2020, other outputs since the start of the year include:

–        Thousands of new merchants launched stores and started selling worldwide on the Moteefe platform which now supports 5,000 merchants

–        Products have been sold and shipped into 166 countries

–        Supply chain capacity has doubled as a result of integrating several new third-party manufacturers into the network to support tens of thousands orders per day

Eefting has recently been joined by Charlie Cannell, previously Digital Director at Inflexion, who has joined Moteefe as Chairman.

-ENDS-

About Moteefe

 Moteefe, founded in 2015, enables brands and retailers of all sizes to offer unique and personalised merchandisable products within minutes. It is the only technology enabled

end-to-end e-commerce solution to manage the entire production and fulfilment of high quality, on demand, customised products globally. Every order is produced and routed as close to the end-consumer as possible for cost and carbon reduction. With offices in London, Lisbon and Hanoi, and 20 fulfilment partners around the world, Moteefe is a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and Technology Fast 500 EMEA company.

About BGF

 BGF was set up in 2011 and has invested more than £2.2bn in over 330 companies, making it the most active investor in the UK. BGF is a minority, non-controlling equity partner with a patient outlook on investments, based on shared long-term goals with the management teams it backs. BGF invests in growing businesses in the UK and Ireland through its network of 14 offices. In 2018, Canada launched its equivalent – the Canadian Business Growth Fund – and in 2019, Australia did the same, both based on BGF’s funding model.

About Gresham House Ventures

Gresham House Ventures invests up to £10m seeks to support exciting UK businesses with bold ambitions for the future, by providing transformational growth capital and expertise to accelerate business potential. For more information about the Gresham House Ventures please visit www.greshamhouseventures.com

Gresham House plc is an AIM-quoted specialist alternative asset manager providing funds, direct investments and tailored investment solutions, including co-investment, across a range of highly differentiated alternative investment strategies. The Group’s expertise includes strategic public and private equity, forestry, renewable energy, housing and infrastructure.

About Force Over Mass Capital

Force Over Mass Capital (FOM) is a venture capital firm with offices in London and Antwerp. FOM focuses on early stage investments (seed, series A, series B) in B2B technology innovation (AI, Fintech, SaaS and Industry 4.0). Force Over Mass manages Pan-European VC Funds and UK EIS Funds and has been recognised for delivering consistent high returns.

Please visit www.fomcap.com.

Notes to editors

●      Founders: Moteefe was founded by Mathijs Eefting, Lev Kundin and Olivier Stapylton-Smith upon completion of their INSEAD MBA.

●      Features and functionality of the platform include:
○      Front-end store technology and payment systems (thanks to partnerships with Stripe / Adyen / PayPal / Klarna)
○      Design and management of products, stores and pricing strategies
○      Engaging sites & content to communicate with sellers’ audiences using their language and branding, to drive conversion rates
○      Global production network with 20 manufacturers and fulfilment centres in 10 countries
○      Customer service: 24/7 support for buyers via email in more than 10 languages
○      Advanced reporting & analytics tools
○      Merchants run multiple stores with each store focused on a specific niche market for buyers

●      Further research into on demand and social commerce:

○      Forrester – Predictions 2020 – Brands will have to limit reliance on aggregated third-party data to target customers, Forrester says, which might result in decreasing data-informed personalisation efforts. Instead, brands should seek to build authentic connections through influencer marketing, especially as Instagram builds tools to help brands create targeted influencer campaigns based on ideal audience.
○     McKinsey – Fashion on demand