Cloud-based software firm Tulip Retail, which provides a mobile app suite for store associates in retail settings, has raised $40 million in its latest funding round. The round was led by American venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
During its four years in business, Toronto-based Tulip has grown its client list to include retail chains such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Toys “R” Us and Coach, among others.
The company’s mobile app allows retailers to access select in-store services, including assisted selling, checking the company’s online and in-store inventory, mobile checkout and customer communication. Tulip enables brick-and-mortar stores to better compete against online retailers such as Amazon because it gives them a digital presence during the in-store experience.
“For the first time, very large retailers, who are traditionally very slow at changing, are adopting new technology and new modes of selling in a way that we’ve never seen before,” Tulip Retail CEO Ali Asaria told Reuters, “and we are a big part of that.”
Tulip expects to open an office abroad in response to growing demand in international regions such as Asia, Europe and South America.
Although Tulip has seen sales rise four-fold during the past year and projects continued sales growth, the cloud-based software company is not aiming to be acquired. Asaria told Reuters he hopes to launch an initial public offering (IPO) by 2022 or 2023.
Earlier this year, Tulip forged a strategic partnership with behavioral marketing platform SmarterHQ to offer in-store personnel who use Tulip additional access to customer insights based on their activity on retailers’ websites. Tulip aimed to integrate the SmarterHQ technology into Tulip Retail’s mobile app so store associates could access customer activity in both on- and offline channels and incorporate that data into customer profiles.
The data available to store associates between Tulip and SmarterHQ was expected to allow store associates to better personalize product recommendations.
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