E-Commerce Company Cart.com Raises $240 Million in Funding

(Bloomberg) -- E-commerce company Cart.com Inc. raised $240 million in equity and debt funding for its end-to-end platform for online retailers.

The Austin, Texas-based company has increased revenues by 400% in the past year and reached $380 million in total funding with this new round. The company has more than 3,000 brands using its services, including Haymaker Coffee Co., Pathway Homes and Guess.

Cart.com also recently acquired fulfillment and customer-care provider FB Flurry, which will allow Cart.com to provide two-day delivery options to most customers in the continental U.S. Chief Executive Officer Omair Tariq said Cart.com's expansion into logistics was necessary to reach the company's goal of making it easier and cheaper for businesses to create a brand that can sell everywhere.

“Anywhere a consumer is shopping, you should be selling your product at, and Cart.com is on a mission to enable that in the most convenient way ever done before,” Tariq said.

In addition to FB Flurry, Cart.com has acquired eight companies since its founding in September 2020, and its offerings now include marketing services, data analytics and a direct-to-consumer online store. Cart.com is looking next to improve its existing services and expand into European markets.

“We're investing significant amounts of calories to make sure that the experience a brand has on our end-to-end platform, or any part of our platform for that matter, is perfect,” Tariq said. “What we don't want to do is just get too big before we get too good.”

The latest funding round was led by Dallas, Texas-based Legacy Knight Capital Partners, a branch of the family investment company Legacy Knight: Multi-Family Office. David Sawyer, Legacy Knight's chief operation officer and managing partner, said Cart.com first caught his eye as a fast-growing company in Texas. Sawyer said he was most impressed by the company's ability to quickly acquire and integrate businesses, which will naturally feed into more growth within the U.S. and internationally.

“The broader macro tailwind here that was largely caused by Covid-19 of more e-commerce businesses, more sales online versus brick and mortar - Cart.com can take that globally. There's nothing preventing them,” Sawyer said. “I think that obviously at the right time for the company, it can be a huge growth area for them, and we are excited to support and assist in that.”