PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024

Cart.com Raises $30 Million to Scale Commerce Platform

eCommerce fulfillment

Commerce and logistics solutions provider Cart.com has received $30 million in financing from Trinity Capital.

The growth capital will let Cart.com scale its operations and bolster its balance sheet, Trinity said in a news release Thursday (Dec. 21). The new financing follows a $60 million Series C round in June that valued Cart.com at $1.2 billion.

“With Trinity’s financing, Cart.com will double down on investments that support the growing demand for innovative logistics and commerce infrastructure solutions that help our customers unlock more efficient growth,” Cart.com founder and CEO Omair Tariq said in the release.

“In 2023, Cart.com successfully reached unicorn status while growing revenue 50% and achieving profitability,” he added. “We’re excited to partner with Trinity, a proven and trusted provider of capital to growth-stage companies, to fuel our next chapter of profitable growth in the years to come.”

Based in Houston, Texas, Cart.com offers digitally driven logistics capabilities, enterprise-grade channels and order management software and expert services designed to simplify commerce for middle-market and enterprise companies.

PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster spoke with Tariq last year about the importance of providing enterprise-grade connected commerce capabilities to smaller brands after the pandemic.

Speaking of eCommerce giants, Tariq said: “They own the entire technological stack, and as a result, they own the entire operational stack. The journey of their end consumers is massively impacted by it.”

He added that not many up-and-coming firms have the ability to fund deliberate infrastructure investments for years at a time.

That means that “the only way a brand can access a fully interconnected digital and physical infrastructure is by selling through a marketplace like Amazon,” said Tariq. “However, on Amazon, they can’t be a brand. They don’t have control of their end consumer.”

Cart.com’s new funding comes at a time when a majority of growth companies in the U.S. are accessing working capital, according to recent joint research by PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa.

In the last 12 months, 71% of companies in North America accessed working capital solutions, while 90% of CFOs from the region state that these solutions have helped their companies obtain favorable payment terms for new business ventures.

“North America’s Growth Corporates appear to experience operational efficiency advantages by using external working capital solutions for strategic purposes rather than tactical ones,” PYMNTS wrote last week.

PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024