Wayflyer, an e-commerce revenue-based financing and marketing analytics platform, has announced its seed capital raise of $10.2 million.
The capital will support the company’s global growth ambitions, ability to continue to provide funding for e-commerce platforms, and further develop its proprietary technology.
The seed funding round was led by QED Investors (backers of Credit Karma, ClearScore, Nubank, SoFi), with Middlegame Ventures and co-investors Speedinvest and FinTech Investment Vehicle FGFE as the other major participants.
This equity financing raise comes as Wayflyer scales to meet strong demand in the e-commerce sector for its funding and analytics offerings suited for small businesses, putting the company on track to reach profitability in 2021.
“Wayflyer’s purpose is to help eliminate the road blocks for e-commerce stores on their path to growth. Their success is our success. With this funding, we can expand our global footprint to support even more startups to grow their businesses and empower them to market more effectively,” said Aidan Corbett, Wayflyer’s CEO and co-founder.
“Since issuing our first advance in March of this year, we have helped over 100 businesses to exceed their revenue and growth goals with over $25 million in total funding advanced and zero defaults. With the support of our investors, we’re building upon this winning formula in new markets and with new capabilities.”
To help growing eCommerce brands meet their potential, Wayflyer provides affordable and unsecured capital up to $5 million for inventory and advertising space. Its funding solutions are tailored for the needs of burgeoning e-commerce and Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brands for both efficiency and continuous support, pairing ongoing marketing advice with same-day offers generated by its underwriting analytics engine.
In 2020, Wayflyer found that, after 90 days, funded brands outperformed their forecast by 78% on average.
This latest funding round will enable the company to fund up to one thousand more e-commerce stores over the next year. The startup is also aiming to expand their customer base in the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland, along with strengthening their presence in fast-growing markets such as Australia and Canada.
“Wayflyer’s data-driven approach is a paradigm change for the eCommerce market,” according to Yusuf Özdalga, a Partner at QED Investors, the funding round’s lead investor.
“At QED, we understand how challenging it is to build a business from scratch. Wayflyer provides a new avenue for growing companies to access capital while maintaining their innovative edge and independence. We believe strongly in the company’s model and vision for the maturing DTC sector.”