Cart.com Valued at $1.2 Billion Following $60 Million Series C

Cart.com has raised $60 million in a funding round that values the company at $1.2 billion.

The commerce and logistics solutions company announced the Series C funding round Tuesday (June 27), saying it would use the financing to boost its international expansion and meet increased demand from enterprise and B2B customers.

CEO and co-founder Omair Tariq added that the company will use the funding to invest in its commerce data capabilities, “which are built to address the specific inventory, channel, and supply chain challenges facing enterprises.”

PYMNTS spoke with Tariq last year about the importance of offering enterprise-grade connected commerce capabilities to smaller brands following the pandemic.

Speaking of eCommerce giants, Tariq told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, “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 fledgling companies have the ability to pay for 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.”

Meanwhile, PYMNTS recently explored efforts by those eCommerce giants — Amazon, along with Walmart and Shopify — to derive revenue by offering fulfillment-as-a-service (FaaS). This term, per that report “covers everything from getting goods transported to warehouses (on cargo ships, etc.,) to storing them, to getting them to the customers’ doorstep.”

Earnings calls from earlier this year spotlight some of these companies’ FaaS ambitions, with management seeing long-term potential in helping smaller merchants compete with bigger enterprises in terms of fast delivery and enhanced sales conversions.

Speaking with analysts on an earnings call, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said the company would be working to expand its fulfillment service Shop Promise to all eligible U.S. merchants this year, while its other fulfillment networks have seen 40% and 50% growth since late 2021.

Walmart in February also showed increased intent to leverage Walmart Fulfillment Services as part of the company’s marketplace offering for sellers. Those services include transporting inventory to Walmart Fulfillment facilities, where those items are picked, packed and shipped.