Bigcommerce Gets Big Bucks

E-Commerce services firm Bigcommerce has emptied an investment shopping cart to the tune of $50 million, courtesy of SoftBank Capital, American Express Ventures, Telstra Ventures, Revolution Growth and General Catalyst, Recode reported.

“Led by CEO Eddie Machaalani, Bigcommerce sells subscriptions to its software platform, which gives businesses tools to do things like host and set up online shops on desktops and mobile devices; optimize them for search engines; and run promotions,” the story noted. “Bigcommerce has so far raised $125 million and the new money will be used to invest in new software products, launch its service in new areas around the world and beef up its sales and marketing departments.”

Although Bigcommerce works with SMB merchants, it is getting help from some major players. For example, eBay this summer said it had shut down two of its E-Commerce software products and publicly told its customer that they should move to Bigcommerce. And last month, Bigcommerce announced a partnership with Alibaba “to streamline product sourcing for merchants,” a Bigcommerce statement said.

“SoftBank Capital (Partner) Steve Murray, who is joining the board, said that his firm’s relationship with Japanese giant SoftBank could someday lead to Bigcommerce partnerships with Sprint or Yahoo Japan — two companies in which SoftBank holds large stakes,” the story said. SoftBank also owns one-third of Alibaba, the company statement said.