Why we backed Scalefast: the Adara Ventures view on the $26m Series B

Scalefast, the digital commerce solution that is changing the way brands do direct-to-consumer (DTC) eCommerce, recently announced it had raised $26 million in Series B funding, in a round led by Xplorer Capital, Stereo Capital, FJLabs.

Adara Ventures also participated in the round, alongside existing investors Benhamou Global Ventures and Crédit Mutuel Equity having previously backed the business in their Series A round in 2018.

We are delighted to continue backing the founders Nicolas (CEO), Olivier (CMO) and Fred (CTO) as they seek to move Scalefast to the next level of growth, while expanding the capabilities of the platform.

Since our initial investment, we have been very impressed by Scalefast’s ability to consistently grow the top line whilst building a world class team across their international offices (the team has grown to include more than 90 technical profiles based in Madrid whilst the bulk of the corporate and sales team are in Los Angeles).

An outlier in a highly competitive market

It is our belief that brands need to tool up in order to improve their ability to compete directly through their DTC channels. While there is quite a lot of competition from DTC offerings for brands, we think that Scalefast has a unique set of functionalities and characteristics that empowers brands to regain the control and simplicity they need to create an exceptional shopping experience.

Flexible + powerful one stop eCommerce platform

Scalefast provides a scalable enterprise commerce cloud for high growth brands. Complete with advanced native features such as social sharing, loyalty program management, affiliate management, subscriptions management, Single Sign-on, B2B management, gift cards and more, Scalefast gives brands the flexibility they need to cater to today’s and tomorrow’s passionate generation of shoppers.

Massive volume transaction processing power

Unlike other platforms built on ancient frameworks and languages, Scalefast is built on modern frameworks, such as Angular by Google. The platform includes very innovative optimization techniques at the core of the software which allow it to handle massive and sudden transaction volumes for a fraction of the cost (several hundreds of orders per second).

From a modelling perspective, it relies on a headless eCommerce Graph and its RESTful API which makes it very simple and fast to conform to each client’s unique needs, regardless of prior technical debt. This makes the platform maleable to the existing client’s tech stack and enables superior availability, performance and security.

Simultaneous global launch capabilities

For global enterprise companies looking to increase the performance and reach of their eCommerce channel, Scalefast is the end-to-end eCommerce solution that makes it fast and simple to launch into new geographies or jump-start brand growth with DTC, almost instantly. Through the brands it serves, Scalefast delivers exceptional consumer experiences in 240+ countries and territories and is capable of deploying international, personalised storefronts in record time compared to competitors.

2020: a year of record growth

When we backed the company for the Series A, Scalefast was beginning to diversify from its initial clients in the gaming space, who need to process high volume purchases in real-time. These customers validated the ability of the platform to handle extreme transactional throughput and maintain high levels of availability. Since then the company has successfully diversified into other verticals, adding megabrands like L’Oréal and FLIR to its client list. The growth of its customer base has led to triple digit GMV and net revenue growth, with more than 17Mn orders served.

In the context of the global COVID-19 crisis, Scalefast further demonstrated its capacity to help brands respond to unprecendented events, streamlining its DTC onboarding and launching stores in as little as 15 days.

Whilst the exact long term effects of COVID-19 on eCommerce are still being understood, we believe that there will be a step change in consumer behaviour that will outlast the current situation. To offer best in class eCommerce experiences, brands must partner with a best in class solution and it is our belief that the next generation of branded eCommerce leaders will be driven by Scalefast.