Leap Raises $15 Million to Enhance Retail Platform

Retail platform Leap has raised $15 million to help brands better manage their retail operations.

The company announced the new funding last week, saying it would help Leap enhance its platform and speed up its journey to profitability.

“Now more than ever, brands want immersive retail stores to connect with high-value customers directly,” Leap Co-founder and CEO Amish Tolia said in a news release. “As Leap grows, our first-party data and operational efficiencies compound, resulting in advantages for both brands and landlords that the traditional in-house retail model simply can’t offer.”

The Leap platform, according to the company website, offers brands omnichannel metric capabilities that help them understand traffic and purchasing behavior. The company also deals with brick-and-mortar issues, like finding store locations, interacting with landlords and handling daily operations.

“Historically speaking, when brands go out and do retail on their own, they’re significantly disadvantaged,” Tolia told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster last year, soon after Leap raised $50 million in a Series B funding round. “So many times, they’re using [their] gut and don’t have the data and intelligence to be able to make smart decisions” about locations, systems and back-office matters.

He added that even businesses with established online presences can struggle to replicate that success in the physical world and argued that this process doesn’t have to be a painful one.

These days, customers want a seamless journey, Erica Savka, senior vice president of enterprise payments and merchant services product strategy at Bank of America, said in an interview with PYMNTS published June 16.

Shoppers want to be able to shift easily between channels, without any roadblocks or inconsistencies. To make this happen, merchants need a strong omnichannel presence with consistency across all channels. And the larger the merchant, the bigger the expectation.

“For example, I shop at Home Depot, both online and in-store,” said Savka. “I prefer to shop at Home Depot online for the heavy stuff that I cannot carry from the store … and I still go to the store to get things like plants or decorations. If the retailer knows that, if they know my preferences, they can target specific offers and curate that experience for me as a consumer.”

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