Dutch startup which enables online storefronts to be built ten times faster secures second round in 8 months as it records 85% month-on-month growth
Instant Commerce, a headless storefront builder, today announced it has secured a €5.4M Seed. The round was led by HV Capital and joined by Hearst Ventures and existing investor firstminute capital.
Since being founded at the start of 2022, Instant Commerce has landed more than 30 major clients including Bols, ID&T, Ekster, and Yaya and recorded impressive 85% month-on-month growth. This latest round comes only eight months after Instant Commerce raised €2.1M pre-Seed from firstminute capital and various angel investors, bringing total investment to €7.5M.
Instant Commerce’s platform, designed for both technical and non-technical users enables eCommerce brands on Shopify to easily build highly functional and engaging headless storefronts. Thanks to its no-code approach, storefronts can be brought to market up to ten times faster and cheaper than traditional solutions.
The new funding will be used to accelerate product innovation, double the team from 30 to 60 members, increase partnerships and integrations, enter new European markets and lay the groundwork for Instant Commerce’s expansion into the U.S.
Coen van Hees, Co-Founder and CEO of Instant Commerce, said: “Our platform solves a huge challenge for ecommerce brands – how to build a highly functional and engaging online storefront in a fast and cost-effective way without having to rely on a large team of developers. As a result, we’ve experienced an incredible amount of growth in such a short period of time. Now, with this investment we will be able to really ramp up our expansion plans and enter markets beyond Europe.”
Said Alib Haschemi, Investment manager at HV Capital, said: “The growth that Instant Commerce has shown since its founding demonstrates how strong the demand is for a solution that enables brands to build and deliver best-in-class online shopping experiences in a fast and intuitive manner. This is one of the many reasons we strongly believe Instant Commerce is well positioned to become the default headless frontend solution for eCommerce brands across the globe.”
Jacqueline Cegla, Principal at Hearst Ventures, said: “What excited us about Instant Commerce in particular was the intuitive product based on its no-code offering as it enables a broad range of retailers to go headless that weren’t able to do so before due to engineering constraints. While early this is supported by the strong demand the business sees in the market.”
Instant Commerce’s platform integrates with scores of different systems like Shopify, Storyblok, Algolia and more using APIs. Thanks to the headless approach (separation of the frontend and backend) brands can finally deliver on the expectation of today’s consumers: fast-site speed, omni-channel presence, a unique shopping experience and more. The result is a platform that enables eCommerce companies of any size to compete with the online offering of the world’s biggest brands at the fraction of the cost and time.
Sam Endacott, Partner at firstminute capital, said: “We are thrilled to be doubling down on Instant Commerce just 8 months after leading the pre-Seed. Since then, they have seen strong demand from customers demonstrating just how high on the agenda a headless approach is amongst eCommerce merchants.”
Founders Coen and Sam van Hees and Doeke Leeuwis previously built one of Europe’s leading eCommerce agencies. This experience helped them understand the positive impact headless commerce can have on eCommerce brands and the pain points involved in building and managing headless storefronts. This inspired them to build a headless storefront builder that reduces time to market 10X, empowers the entire eCommerce team from developers to marketers, and cuts costs significantly.
According to the Salesforce State of Commerce report, 80% of businesses that don’t currently have headless commerce technology plan to implement it in the next two years. But building, maintaining and managing headless storefronts is an enormous task that requires a lot of capital and human resources.
