Austin’s Bigcommerce Raises $50M to Expand Platform, Markets
Angela Shah November 19, 2014
E-retail software maker Bigcommerce announced Wednesday that it has raised $ 50 million in a Series C round. The Austin, TX-based company sells e-commerce software to small businesses. It’s in the middle of a growth streak, and the new funding will enable Bigcommerce to boost research and development and sales and marketing efforts to expand into new markets, the company said. SoftBank Capital led the round, with investments from Telstra Ventures, American Express, and returning investors General Catalyst and Revolution Growth. The new capital brings the company’s total fundraising so far to $ 125 million. Eddie Machaalani, Bigcommerce’s co-founder and CEO, said the SoftBank investment, in particular, will help with the company’s growth strategy in Asia. SoftBank Capital is the investment arm of SoftBank, the Japanese telecom giant that owns about a third of Alibaba Group, making it the largest shareholder of the Chinese e-commerce giant. “Now that we have a very strong U.S. presence, the question is what can we do to solidify our ability to expand internationally as well,” Machaalani said in a statement. “We think we can learn a lot from Alibaba.” Machaalani also said that Telstra Ventures, which is the investment arm of Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom, will help the company further expand in that continent, which is where Bigcommerce was founded. Bigcommerce rattled Austin’s tech community this past summer because of its “Donut Settle For Less” guerrilla recruiting campaign that targeted employees at competitors such as Outbound Engine and Main Street Hub. Bigcommerce employees, including one dressed in a doughnut costume, staked out the companies, handing out fliers that touted working at Bigcommerce. Other members of the tech community, including Capital Factory founder Joshua Baer derided the campaign overly aggressive and not in line with what he and others say is Austin’s more collaborative ethos.
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