Ecommerce software startup Tradeswell raises $ 15.5 million, plans to hire

Tradeswell, the e-commerce technology startup where the former Millennium Media CEO Paul Palmieri joined as CEO earlier this year, raised $ 15.5 million in new funding, the company said this week.

Series A comes after the company launched its platform, which it describes as an e-commerce operating system for brands, in October. And it was only six months after the Baltimore and San Francisco-based company raised $ 3.3 million in seed that was disclosed in July.

Like the tour de table, the latest funding was led by a San Francisco-based investment firm Traffic light. Chevy Chase-based venture capital firm Build capital also returned in this round to increase his investment in the business. New investors Allen & Company and The Emerson Group also joined this tour.

The company’s software platform seeks to address the economics of e-commerce, which Palmieri says is a challenge both for brands that might be familiar in retail stores and for direct-to-consumer brands that are looking to sell their products through digital marketplaces.

“In the case of traditional businesses, they sell products like crazy on Amazon, but were so unprepared for last mile marketing and last mile delivery, that they signed up with facilitators. black box and silo. As a result, they find it difficult to function in the context of their true unitary economy, ”he said.

“DTC brands, on the other hand, are certain of the economics of their unit, but have no idea how to take advantage of the economy of scale,” Palmieri said, adding that it is about funding, manufacturing and monitoring the many tools and channels of e-commerce.

The company’s platform reveals and automates the actions of these brands to make smarter, faster decisions. This helps to increase sales, margins and profits and, in turn, the whole business.

It does this by aggregating data across e-commerce channels, marketing platforms, logistics, sales, and finance functions. Then it brings up information and automates some of the actions via AI. The idea is that this can provide visibility for an entire business which will help drive growth and respond to market movements.

The company has 150 brands in both categories on its platform, including the iconic Baltimore company McCormick and fair trade company Tony’s Chocolonely. He worked with a lot during the holiday season. Palmieri, who ran Baltimore’s adtech company Millennial Media when it went public in 2012, sees a big market in a $ 3 trillion industry, which has only grown during the pandemic. He also sees it as an area where software can play a big role. While there are growing startups that make software that caters to specific parts of the whole and service companies that help with strategy, Palmieri sees the need for a “brain”.

“Over time, as in any high-speed, high-volume industry that has been transformed by software, an algorithm-agnostic facilitator ends up helping the market know what to do – at market speed,” he said. declared. “What Bloomberg did to revolutionize commerce, what Google Made to streamline information, Tradeswell’s algorithmic trading platform will do the trick for e-commerce brands. As the ground crews on the NYSE today, e-commerce will still need a few fingers and some services, but it definitely needs a software brain.

After the funding, the company will continue to develop its technology, including investing more in artificial intelligence, quantitative commerce and e-commerce integrations. She is also looking to hire to complement her team of 25 in areas such as data science, engineering and sales. Currently he has 20 open roles.

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