Elastic Path raises $10 million through Yaletown Ventures and BDC

Vancouver enterprise commerce company Elastic Path Software Inc. has secured $10 million fundraising, led by Yaletown Venture Partners and the BDC Venture Capital IT Fund.

Elastic Path’s software helps brands generate revenue through the development of omnichannel experiences.

The company has strengthened its partnership network over the past year, primarily digital marketing agencies and enterprise systems integrators, while streamlining its sales and marketing channels and providing global technical support.

“You can’t grow by doing everything yourself,” says BDC Venture Capital IT Fund partner Andrew Lugsdin. “Elastic Path has created a strong and viable partner ecosystem that will allow the company to scale, using less resources internally, yet having a laser-focused partner that generates results for each industry or vertical that makes sense to pursue.”

Founded in 2002, Elastic Path has helped its customers, who include DeVry, Garmin, Lifeway, LVMH, McGraw-Hill Education, Time Inc., Virgin Media, and Wine.com.br, generate $40 billion in sales using its digital commerce technology.

“Our customers are telling us that omnichannel service is no longer an option for doing business, it’s a requirement,” says CEO Harry Chemko.  “This is forcing companies to rethink their current marketing and customer service strategies. Buyers want the ability to shop from one channel to the next and assume the brand will recognize their preferences and actions. It’s no longer about offline or online, in-store or e-commerce – it’s simply the new expectation of business, and commerce.”

eCommerce sales are projected to hit 9% of total retail sales, or $79.4 billion, this holiday season by eMarketer, up from 8.3% last year. They also predict that by the end of 2016, 25.0% of all retail e-commerce sales in the US will take place via mobile devices.

Accordingly, companies are increasing their spend on eCommerce technology, doubling from $1.2 billion in 2014 to just under $2.1 billion in 2019, according to Forrester Research, with companies also projected to upgrade their commerce platforms every five or six years through 2019, as opposed to every seven years or more pre-2014.

“Changing consumer preferences in online buying are forcing retailers to adopt new technologies in order to extract maximum value from their brands and sales channels,” says Yaletown Venture Partners general partner Mike Satterfield. “Elastic Path’s Commerce platform is winning customers because it enables e-commerce innovation including future integrations, while tying into a business’s legacy technology systems.”

The funding will grow Elastic Path’s Software-as-a-Service revenues, deepen investment in partner channels and continue innovation on its recently patented commerce platform.