Headless commerce startup fabric closed a $140 million Series C funding round led by Softbank, with participation from Forerunner Ventures, Glynn Capital and existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Norwest Ventures and Stripes. Robert Kaplan from Softbank will join fabric’s board of directors.
Headquartered in Seattle and launched in 2016 by Ryan Bartley and Shiv Agarwal, this latest round of funds follows a $100 million Series B led by Stripes in July. fabric now has an estimated valuation of $1.5 billion, according to a press release on Thursday (Feb. 24).
See also: Headless Commerce Company fabric Launches B2B Commerce Platform
“This round will allow us to increase the velocity of our innovation and product development while we continue to create technology that, unlike our competitors, bends to the needs of our customers, not the other way around,” said Faisal Masud, CEO of fabric.
He added that fabric is striving to be the “future of digital commerce” and recently closed deals with new customers The Honest Company, Chico’s, McDonald’s, TriMark, and L’azurde.
The fresh infusion of capital will be earmarked for tapping automation and intelligence to speed up product development, as well as growing the company’s presence to more regions.
As trillions of dollars are spent online, merchants are starting to look ahead to changing consumer expectations post-COVID-19. The company pointed to customer experience as playing a key role, where retailers and brands should look to offer an optimized, omnichannel experience.
Read more: Fabric Gets New Funding, Aims To Free Retailers From Legacy eCommerce Platforms
“Retailers need to meet modern consumers wherever they are — whether online, offline, mobile, social or any future entry point. This means merchants of all sizes, and especially mid-market and enterprise, need the right commerce platform to keep pace with evolving trends,” said Robert Kaplan, Investment Director at SoftBank.
Offering a product suite with hundreds of commerce APIs and an API orchestration framework, fabric also extends flexibility for “unique business models, experiences and managed service offerings for all channels and industry verticals.” The fabric Marketplace connects brands so they can quickly meet customers’ product desires.