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SAN DIEGO, CA – May 21, 2020 06:00 EDT
Ecwid, a leading global software-as-a-service (SaaS) e-commerce company, today announced a funding round of $42 million led by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and PeakSpan Capital. Ecwid provides online selling solutions for small businesses and enables them to establish a digital storefront in a matter of hours. In the past year, the company has seen strong momentum as a result of continued product innovation, expansion of their global partner ecosystem, and a powerful platform customers consider the easiest-to-use in the industry.
The funds will in part be used to buy-out previous and early-stage investors, including Runa Capital and iTech Capital, as well as to fuel aggressive growth including an expected doubling of headcount. Joining Ecwid’s Board of Directors are PeakSpan Capital Co-Founder and Managing Partner Phil Dur, and Pete Chung, Managing Director and Head of Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital.
The Covid-19 global health crisis has forced merchants to close physical storefronts and adapt to a new world of commerce and customer interactions. As a result, Ecwid has seen a surge in adoption of their free and easy-to-use solution; new customer sign-ups have tripled as merchants turn to Ecwid to transition their businesses online to survive during this time of uncertainty. Transaction volume amongst Ecwid’s hundreds-of-thousands of active customers increased more than 50 percent from April to March alone.
“High costs and complex technology have traditionally prevented the majority of small businesses from shifting their brick-and-mortar presence to digital. Ecwid is at the forefront of empowering small businesses to meet those challenges head-on,” said Ruslan Fazlyev, Founder and CEO of Ecwid. “The support early on from Runa Capital as we spun Ecwid out of a previous e-commerce company, X-Cart, played a massive role in the expansion of our partner channels, and iTech Capital was an important player in funding further growth. The new wave of funding gives us the resources and flexibility to accelerate the evolution of an e-commerce platform and to further expand internationally. We are playing an important role in enabling small businesses to survive, thrive and grow in this new Covid-19 world.”
Over the last decade, Ecwid has steadily built an expanding set of tools and signed up more than 1.5 million small businesses in more than 175 countries and supporting 54 languages. Ecwid has seen significant growth over the past two years, with new customer sign-ups doubling in 2019 and jumping another 300 percent this quarter vs. 2019. Ecwid has also earned a Net Promoter Score of 60, far above the industry average. Industry and customer reviews consistently rank Ecwid favorably against all other e-commerce platforms.
“Covid-19 is reinforcing what we already knew: e-commerce is vital, and it’s available to even the smallest of merchants now with Ecwid’s free tools that even novice Internet users can adopt quickly,” said Phil Dur of PeakSpan Capital. “We have been watching Ecwid for many years.The company’s impressive capital efficiency and very strong long-term market opportunity made it an easy decision for us to partner with them during this next phase of growth.”
“Ecwid is truly helping its customers make the most of e-commerce enablement at a time when their traditional retail businesses have been disrupted so dramatically,” said Pete Chung of Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. “Ruslan is an e-commerce visionary who has built a team and beloved solution that allows any mom-and-pop shop to embrace the online world, dramatically expanding their revenue and market potential.”
“We partnered with Ecwid in 2011 when the company reached their hundred thousand merchant milestone and operated primarily out of Russia,” said Dmitry Chikhachev, co-founder and Managing Partner at Runa Capital. “Today, Ecwid is one of the leading e-commerce platforms. powering over 1.5 million merchants across the globe and now headquartered in California. The founders and the team have transformed the company into a global leader, and we are proud of our work and collaboration to get them to this point.”
“After five years of joint effort growing a truly international player, I am happy to transfer Ecwid to the reliable hands of PeakSpan Capital and Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. They will help Ruslan and his team move forward in today’s challenging times,” said Gleb Davidyuk, co-founder and Managing Partner of iTech Capital. “I am proud of iTech’s ability to find and support talented founders in their ambitious desire to scale globally. Ecwid is a great example in this respect."
Founded in 2009, Ecwid’s e-commerce solution was built to enable businesses to quickly and easily create a new online store or add shopping capabilities to an existing website at no cost. The platform offers merchants a comprehensive set of e-commerce tools, including access to key marketplaces, including Amazon and Google, access to a range of point-of-sales solutions and the ability to advertise and sell on social media channels such as Instagram and Facebook.
About Ecwid
Ecwid E-commerce is a global SaaS e-commerce platform company established in 2009. Ecwid provides online selling solutions for small businesses in over 175 countries and in 54 languages. For more information visit: https://www.ecwid.com.
About Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital
Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital is the growth-focused private investment platform within Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital target growth equity and credit investments within technology, healthcare, consumer, digital media and other high growth sectors. For over three decades, Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital has successfully pursued growth investment opportunities and has completed investments in over 200 companies leveraging the global brand and network of Morgan Stanley. For further information about Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, please visit www.morganstanley.com/im/expansioncapital.
About PeakSpan Capital
Based in New York City and Silicon Valley, PeakSpan Capital is a growth equity firm with a singular mission to be the partner of choice for growth-stage entrepreneurial teams building amazing business software companies. PeakSpan combines deep domain expertise within a select number of themes with an active partner approach to help entrepreneurs drive excellent risk-adjusted growth and value creation. To learn more about PeakSpan Capital and its portfolio, please visit www.peakspancapital.com/.
