Mirakl Raises $70 Million to Power the Platform Economy

The Category Leader Launched 37 Marketplaces in 2018 to Level the Playing Field Against Amazon and Alibaba

Mirakl, the leading global marketplace solutions provider, announced that it has raised $70 million led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from existing investors 83North, Felix Capital and Elaia Partners, bringing total capital raised to $100 million. With this funding, Mirakl will invest in its technology, expand the team, and continue to power the platform economy globally.

In 2018, Mirakl added 60 new customers and launched a record 37 marketplaces, experiencing 80% year-over-year revenue growth while customers experienced 100% increase in gross merchandise value (GMV) from 2017. This sizeable investment is both a recognition of Mirakl’s impressive growth, and the increased dominance of the online marketplace model. The funding will enable Mirakl to further advance its technology and global partner ecosystem, which powers eCommerce 3rd party marketplaces for B2C and B2B businesses. Significant areas of technology investment will include:

• Building new solutions for emerging B2B platform business models, which Forrester predicts will be a $9 trillion industry in the U.S. by 2019.
• Launching new analytics capabilities to make the massive amount of data coming from online marketplaces more actionable. These capabilities will also fuel AI and personalization solutions to increase conversions and improve customer experiences.
• Making Mirakl’s solution even easier for retailers and brands to launch a marketplace, rapidly onboard sellers, and scale SKUs.

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“Mirakl is building a new category and ushering in a platform revolution,” said Adrien Nussenbaum, U.S. CEO and cofounder of Mirakl. “We are paving the way to a new business model that can transform businesses and help them establish themselves as leaders in the platform economy. We are thrilled that our investors recognize this vision and the huge opportunities in the marketplace space. This investment is a chance to bring our vision to the next level.”

Marketplaces are taking over the world of eCommerce, and Mirakl is a key to this dominance. In 2018, online marketplaces accounted for 52% of global eCommerce sales and sold more merchandise than all stand-alone retail web sites combined. The enormous success of companies like Alibaba, JD.com, Walmart, and Amazon have transformed the eCommerce landscape. Gartner predicts that over 50% of all online sellers will adopt marketplaces or include third-party sales in their eCommerce ecosystems by 2020. Moreover, 15% of medium- to high-GMV digital commerce organizations will have deployed their own marketplaces by 2023.

This shift isn’t limited to B2C businesses. Today, 87% of business buyers are making business purchases through marketplaces and they expect the same level of convenience experienced on consumer websites. Mirakl’s success stems from its commitment to offering a solution that is adaptable to different industries and business models, is easy to use, flexible, customizable, innovative, and allows companies to quickly respond to customer needs. For instance, Mirakl has focused on innovations that address the emergence of new B2B platform business models which allow manufacturers and distributors to build new digital experiences which bring together large and growing ecosystems of partners.

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Mirakl’s innovative and performant technology is used by more than 200 companies globally. Customers include many notable B2C companies, including Walmart (Mexico), Best Buy (Canada), and Urban Outfitters and a diverse set of B2B clients across a range of use cases including Toyota Material Handling, Siemens, and Office Depot. In 2018, Mirakl customers achieved $1 billion GMV representing 100% GMV growth from 2017, and a recent study, conducted by Forrester Consulting, found that Mirakl Marketplaces can deliver a significant 162% return on investment within three years.

Over the past seven years, since Mirakl’s launch, the company has transformed from a French company into a global player; settling in Boston, London, Munich, Barcelona, Stockholm, and São Paulo. To support the rapid adoption of the marketplace model, Mirakl has grown its headcount by 200% in the past two years. This round will further grow headcount, as well as expansion into the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions.

“The platform economy is experiencing rapid growth and Mirakl is at the forefront of pushing the space forward,” said Scott Friend, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “Mirakl’s sophisticated marketplace technology, impressive customer-base, and extraordinary levels of customer satisfaction put them in a prime position to benefit from the growing adoption of third-party marketplace models amongst B2C commerce companies and platform ecosystems in B2B eCommerce businesses. As one of the most active investors in next-generation commerce technologies over the past decade, Bain Capital Ventures has had a keen focus on technology companies and teams that are laying the foundation for how commerce will be conducted in the future. Mirakl, in our estimation, is one of those small handful of unique companies where specialized domain expertise, advanced technology, and a culture of customer success come together in the context of an exploding market trend. We couldn’t be more excited to join them on this journey.”

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