Vortex IQ, an automation platform for ecommerce, has secured a $1m (£790,000) equity funding round to increase its global presence and hiring efforts.
Led by investment firm Sure Valley Ventures, with participation from Techstars, the funding will go towards building its sales and marketing teams, hiring additional AI specialists, and expanding across the US and Europe.
The seed investment comes weeks after its founders, Sambit Patra, Susant Patro and Jaiganesh Vanasubramanian completed Techstars’ Spring 2024 entrepreneurs cohort.
Vortex IQ has also launched an AI DevOps and analytics tool for merchants, with Krispy Kreme currently piloting the programme with its UK and Ireland ecommerce operations, and has plans for a global rollout by the end of 2024.
The idea for the business was inspired by the founders’ own experience in the ecommerce space. They noticed that a lot of merchants were finding it difficult to manage large amounts of data and multiple touch points, which resulted in a lack of actionable insights leading to delays and low conversion rates.
Vortex IQ aims to provide real-time insights, recommendations as well as implementation processes that are AI-powered, so that merchants can enhance their conversion rates and reduce their time to market.
Since its launch, the company says it has doubled its customer base organically over the past six months and formed partnerships with Adobe. It has reportedly onboarded more than 100 merchants to use its AI-automated staging products, Staging Pro, built for BigCommerce, and Dry Run Pro, built for Adobe Commerce and Shopify.
Existing clients include Nvidia, Harley Davidson, Krispy Kreme, Richer Sounds, British Airways – Avios, and Jelly Cat.
Barry Downes, managing partner at Sure Valley Ventures, said: “Vortex IQ is poised to become a leading player in the e-commerce industry with its AI-driven automation platform. The company has seen rapid growth in the last six months and is led by a highly impressive repeat founder who has a strong understanding of ecommerce complexities.”