Bigcommerce, a software service that helps small and mid-sized businesses set up online shops, has taken on a new $50 million investment, led by SoftBank Capital, as it pursues its goal of becoming the dominant back-end provider for online storefronts.
Bigcommerce Gets $50 Million to Set Up Online Shops for Small Businesses Worldwide
The investments come with strategic relationships that could prove even more valuable.
Bigcommerce
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.
Led by CEO Eddie Machaalani, Bigcommerce sells subscriptions to its software platform, which gives businesses tools to do things like host and set up online shops on desktops and mobile devices; optimize them for search engines; and run promotions.
The new investment round included contributions from new investors American Express Ventures and Telstra Ventures as well as returning investors Revolution Growth and General Catalyst. Bigcommerce has so far raised $125 million, and the new money will be used to invest in new software products, launch its service in new areas around the world and beef up its sales and marketing departments.
From a strategic standpoint, the new investors could also open up doors for Bigcommerce that might have otherwise been tough to crack, Machaalani said. SoftBank Capital’s Steve Murray, who is joining the board, said that his firm’s relationship with Japanese giant SoftBank could someday lead to Bigcommerce partnerships with Sprint or Yahoo Japan — two companies in which SoftBank holds large stakes.
It could also help strengthen Bigcommerce’s relationship with Alibaba Group — another Softbank investment — which currently helps Bigcommerce merchants purchase wholesale goods on Alibaba.com. Machaalani also said that American Express Ventures’s investment comes with an agreement that its parent company will work with Bigcommerce on joint marketing initiatives targeting small businesses.
The large investment is the latest big move for Bigcommerce over the last few months. This summer, eBay announced that it was shutting down two of its e-commerce software products and recommended that the 10,000 businesses using them should start working with Bigcommerce instead. Bigcommerce also poached Google business development lead Tim Schulz to become its senior vice president of product.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
