#194 – BigCommerce’s new CEO, eBay buyer fees, & gen-AI video wars

by | Oct 7, 2024 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks

Before we get started, I have a question for you. Please hit reply to this e-mail with a quick answer.

In celebration of my upcoming 200th consecutive weekly edition of Shopifreaks, I'm going to host a giveaway to thank you – my readers – for your support of this newsletter for the past almost four years. 

What would you like as a prize(s) for the giveaway?

  1. MacBook Pro or Microsoft Surface Laptop – standard giveaway prize, but who doesn't want a new laptop?
  2. iPhone 16 Pro Max or Samsung S24 UltraI like to give options for Apple vs Android or Apple vs Windows users
  3. Shop Cash which can be used at any Shopify store – love this idea if I can get permission from Shopify
  4. Amazon or Walmart Gift Cardmy least favorite idea because I'd rather support D2C stores, but I see the appeal as a prize
  5. Assortment of Prizes from Reader Businessesthis idea is interesting because it supports reader's businesses. If your company has a prize you could offer, hit reply and let me know.
  6. OtherI'm open to your ideas

Please take a moment and hit reply to this e-mail and let me know which prize(s) would most excite you!

And now onto this week's 194th Edition of Shopifreaks where I cover:

  • Wealthy people shopping at Walmart
  • BigCommerce's new CEO
  • eBay to charge a buyer fee
  • ByteDance & Meta's gen-AI video creators
  • Facebook's new local features
  • Flexport cuts its workforce again
  • Amazon to show more Prime Video ads
  • Automattic loses 8.4% of its staff
  • Amazon's new visual search tools
  • Google Lens ads
  • ByteDance's aggressive web crawler

All this and more in this week's 194th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

Stat of the Week

People that make more than $200k annually now make up 8% of Walmart's customers. This group has increased 5x faster over the past year than overall customer growth.  — According to Brick Meets Click and Mercatus


1. BigCommerce welcomes a new CEO

BigCommerce appointed Travis Hess, who joined the company as President this past May, as its new CEO. Hess will succeed Brent Bellm, who has served in the position since 2015 and saw the company through its IPO.

DigitalCommerce360 notes that the SEC filing announcing Bellm’s departure confirmed that his exit was not due to any dispute with the company. He will remain as a non-executive employee and special advisor to the CEO and executive chair until Oct. 18.

Travis Hess is now responsible for leading BigCommerce’s global operations and for the overall success and growth of the business.

Hess previously held senior leadership roles at Accenture, where he led the firm's D2C commerce offering and go-to-market strategy. He has also served on partner advisory boards for Shopify, Klaviyo, SAP/Hybris, and Rackspace.

Prior to his time at Accenture, Hess was VP of The Stable, an omnichannel commerce agency that was acquired by Accenture, and before that, CEO of BVA, a Shopify agency, which was acquired by The Stable in 2021. 

See the pattern here? Everywhere Travis Hess works gets acquired!

Earlier this year in May, I reported that BigCommerce was exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to Reuters sources.

The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that included private equity firms, but that the discussions were at an early stage and no deal was certain. 

Industry folks have been speculating for years that BigCommerce should / would get acquired. The company has lost more than 90% of its market value in the four years since its IPO in Aug 2020 and currently holds a market cap of $447M, down from its brief ~$12B valuation in Aug 2020.

Rick Watson reported in August that BigCommerce told Wall Street it is no longer for sale, per a research note from Ken Wong, CFA at Oppenheimer, however who's to say that that the For Sale sign isn't switched back on as quickly as it was switched off?

Perhaps the leadership shakeup at BigCommerce is in preparation for the company's sale, as Hess comes with tremendous experience leading companies through an acquisition. But that's purely speculation…

Either way, I wish BigCommerce the best of luck with the transition, and if not sold, I hope to see great things from the company next year.

2. eBay to charge buyer fees instead of seller fees in UK

Starting next year, eBay will begin charging buyer fees instead of seller fees in the UK, following in the footsteps of Mercari, Poshmark, Depop, and Delcampe, all which shifted fees from sellers to buyers this year.

Quick backstory: eBay distinguishes between “private” and “business” sellers in the UK, unlike in the US.

Business sellers in the UK are subject to more stringent legal obligations compared to private sellers, such as having to comply with consumer protection laws, offer return policies and warranties, and pay taxes on sales including VAT, which are not mandatory for private sellers, so that's why there's the distinction. So, now that you understand that…

In April, eBay started testing no fees on used clothing for private sellers in the UK, and last week, the company made it free to list items in all categories except motors.

The catch to the no seller fees? eBay is introducing a “buyer-facing fee” early next year.

There's an unspoken rule in e-commerce: “Hide your fees from buyers.”

This is why traditionally e-commerce sellers have always absorbed fees like platform transaction costs, payment processing fees, and even shipping into their product costs. The end result is that the buyer sees the exact amount they'll be spending on a product while shopping, versus having additional fees reveal themselves at checkout. That's checkout optimization 101.

The only company I've ever seen successfully charge buyers a platform fee on an international scale has been Airbnb, but even they eventually started giving the option to display the full out-of-pocket cost to buyers browsing the site after pushback from users. 

The reality is that buyers don't want to be charged additional fees to patronize a marketplace, and turning the traditional model upside down isn't a good move for a marketplace. eBay has been having a hard enough time as it is to attract / keep buyers on its marketplace, and adding a buyer fee certainly won't help. 

Is eBay simply out of ideas at this point? Is their whole strategy essentially — well that platform did this, so we could try that?

3. The generative AI video wars heat up!

ByteDance unveiled two new video generators at an event in Shenzhen last week — PixelDance and Seaweed.

PixelDance focuses on AI-driven character animation, generating 10-second videos of characters with lifelike human movements that include walking, turning, picking up objects, and interacting with their environment. The model maintains consistency in character appearance, proportions, and scene details across varying camera angles and shots, which is a bone of contention among users of other existing models. With a single text prompt, users can build complex camera movements like 360-degree pans, zooms, and tracking shots. 

Seaweed offers similar features, but stretches video generation to 30 seconds, with the ability to create up to to 2 minutes of consistent shots. Both models are in an invite-only testing phase and only available to a limited number of users, however, the models could be made publicly available next month.

ByteDance aren't the only ones entering the generative AI video race…

Last week Meta launched Movie Gen, a generative AI tool that uses text inputs to automatically generate videos and audio up to 16 seconds in length, as well as edit existing footage and still images. Since the audio added to videos is also AI-generated, it can match the imagery with ambient noises, sound effects, and background music.

Meta says Movie Gen can also create custom videos from images or change elements of an existing video. For example, the company showed a still headshot of a woman transformed into a video of her sitting in a pumpkin patch sipping a drink.

As impressive as it is, Meta's chief product officer, Chris Cox, wrote on Threads that Meta isn't ready to release the product anytime soon, as it's still expensive and generation time is too long.

ByteDance and Meta's new generative-AI video models will eventually compete with OpenAI's Sora, Kuaishou's Kling AI, Pika Labs, and other pioneers in the space. 

4. Facebook adds Local Tab, Messenger Communities, and AI Integrations

At the company's Facebook IRL event in Austin, TX, Facebook revealed new features aimed at attracting young adults to its platform.

Local Tab – Facebook is testing an experience that pulls together local content from across Marketplace, Groups, and Events into a single feed. Local is currently testing in Austin, New York City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco and Phoenix. This feature looks very promising in regards to helping folks keep up with what's happening in a city, which is information that is currently disjointed across various areas of the platform. 

Weekly and Weekend Digest for Events – Facebook is introducing a compilation of upcoming event recommendations in your area based on your interests, delivered each week via a notification within the app.

Explore Tab – A place to find a variety of content tailored to your interests. Meta writes, “Explore is designed to show you content that doesn’t just entertain, but helps you dive deeper into your interests, get inspired by real people and expert communities and take the next step.” Hmm… Isn't that what the main Facebook Feed has supposedly always been for?

Video Tab – This dedicated space for videos features a full-screen player that combines the best of short-form, long-form, and live videos into a single experience. (ie: TikTok)

SMS, E-mail, and Instagram Invites for Events – a way to extend Facebook Events to guests that are not on Facebook. This is a brilliant idea and should have been an option years ago! Facebook used to want to keep its Events coveted for members of its platform, but now it's realizing that Facebook Events are a way to get people to its platform. 

Customizable Group AI – to help members of groups find answers to questions that have previously been asked. When a group admin enables this feature, members can open a chat with the group's AI, which can answer questions and link to relevant Group posts. This essentially sounds like an improved group search feature, which has desperately been needed for years.

Matchmaker for Facebook Dating – a new feature that lets you invite up to five friends to swipe for potential matches on your behalf. Great idea! Friends have done that for each other in person for years, and now Facebook is virtualizing the experience. 

Messenger Notes Updates – Facebook is adding new functionalities like music and mentions to help spark conversations within the app.

Messenger Communities – a new way for small communities to interact through topic-based chats organized within a larger Messenger Community, without needing to create a Facebook Group. This is similar to the WhatsApp Communities feature that Meta launched in 2022, but likely aimed at US users, who don't use WhatsApp as much. 

Wow great updates Meta! I'm thoroughly impressed with the direction that Facebook appears to be headed — as a hub for local and real-world connection — as opposed to a TikTok-clone. Well, the Video Tab can be a TikTok-clone, but the rest of the platform can be useful in ways that old-school Facebook used to be.

5. Flexport reorganizes omnichannel business and cuts workforce by 2%

Flexport is undergoing a reorganization of its omnichannel business, integrating its freight forwarding and fulfillment teams.

As part of the integration, the company is cutting around 2% of its workforce due to redundancies.

While that might not sound like a large portion of its headcount compared to recent tech layoffs, keep in mind that Flexport already laid off 20% of its workforce this past January, after last year having made 20% reductions in both January and October. Flexport's headcount today sits at about 50% of what it was just over a year ago. 

A Flexport spokesperson told Sourcing Journal:

“We continue to sharpen our focus on larger customers and drive down operating costs, giving us the ability to profitability scale our business and creating value for both our customers and Flexport. We have made great progress towards our growth and profitability goals in 2024, and the reorganization will enable our teams to leverage Flexport’s full suite of logistics capabilities to solve customer problems and help them grow.”

“Larger customers” — that's the dream, right? The holy grail of e-commerce success! Earlier this year, Shein partnered with Flexport as its preferred logistics partner for US operations, and I'd imagine the company wants more partnerships like that. But those partnerships take time to build.

So the question becomes — does Flexport have enough capital reserves to support its current run rate while it acquires these new larger customers?

Flexport has raised over $2.7B in funding to date, including a $260M capital infusion from Shopify earlier this year. The company doesn't disclose its financial numbers, but Sourcing Journal notes that Shopify incurred a net loss on its Flexport investment of $44M in each of the previous two reported quarters, which indicates that Flexport is still burning through cash, despite the massive layoffs. 

6. Amazon to show more commercials in Prime Video

Amazon will be offering more Prime Video ad slots to advertisers next year as the company “ramps up” its ad load “a little bit more.”

In January, when Amazon launched Prime Video's ad tier, subscribers would see two to three-and-a-half minutes of ads per hour (which is increasing), and never in the middle of content (which is changing). 

Kelly Day, VP of Prime Video International told the Financial Times, that upon launch, Prime Video with ads was given a “very light ad load,” providing subscribers with a “gentle entry into advertising that has exceeded customers' expectations in terms of what the ad experience would be like.”

Day later told Ars Technica, “We have not changed our plans to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers and evaluate advertising volumes to help ensure we’re delivering a great customer experience.”

“Meaningfully few ads” — that's not exactly setting the bar too high when comparing yourself to TV. Amazon Video could have half as many ads as traditional TV, and it'd still be too many!

It's also been confirmed that Amazon will be adding shoppable ads to Prime Video next year, which will include carousel ads, pause ads, and brand trivia ads.

Amazon says that Prime Video has 200M monthly viewers and that subscriber count hasn't dropped significantly since it added ads. I guess now Amazon will look to see just how far it can push viewers with ads before they either cancel or upgrade to an ad-free experience (which I'm confident will also go up in price next year).

7. Automattic loses 8.4% of its staff over WP Engine dispute

I've been helping you keep up with the WordPress vs WP Engine drama for the past couple weeks, and I thought the drama was coming to an end last week. However, unfortunately for the WordPress community at large, the tumultuous storyline continues…

Quick Recap:

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg thinks WP Engine should contribute more to the WordPress open source project, so he called them out at a recent WordCamp US event. He later went as far as saying that WP Engine “are a cancer to WordPress, and it's important to remember that unchecked, cancer will spread.”

WP Engine sent a cease and desist letter to Automattic demanding that Mullenweg stop disparaging their company. Automattic responded with a cease and desist letter to WP Engine demanding that they stop improperly using the trademarked terms “WordPress” and “WooCommerce.”

It became public that Mullenweg demanded either 8% of WP Engine's $400M annual revenue to license the trademarks, or an equivalent amount of developer hours donated to The WordPress Foundation. Then he blocked access to the Plugin Repository for WP Engine customers, and subsequently unblocked it.

Flash Forward to Last Week: 

Not everyone at Automattic agreed with Mullenweg on the way he was handlings things with WP Engine, so he decided to clean house of all dissent at the company by offering employees the option to resign immediately and receive $30k or six months of salary (whichever was higher) if they disagreed with his leadership decisions — or stay and kiss his ring. 

159 employees, or roughly 8.4% of staff, accepted the “alignment offer” (as he called it), of which 80% worked at the company's Ecosystem / WordPress division, and the rest were in Automattic's Cosmos businesses, which consist of apps like Pocket Casts, Day One, Tumblr, and Cloudup.

Mullenweg wrote in the blog post: 

  • “I’ve been asking people to vote with their wallet a lot recently, and this is another example!”
  • “159 people took the offer, 8.4% of the company, the other 91.6% gave up $126M of potential severance to stay!”
  • “I’m grateful and thankful for all the people who took the offer, and even more excited to work with those who turned down $126M to stay.”

The comments on the blog post are hilariously positive and obviously moderated, as there are only 20 of them. I'd imagine if Mullenweg let anyone comment on the post, there'd be thousands of comments from the other side. However obviously Mullenweg isn't looking to hear from the opposition in his blog post comment section nor within his company. 

Mullenweg later told The Verge, “WordPress.org just belongs to me personally. In my role as owning WordPress.org, I don’t want to promote a company, which is A: legally threatening me and B: using the WordPress trademark. That’s part of why we cut off access from the servers.”

8. Amazon sees a 70% increase in visual searches

Amazon introduced 5 new visual search features in the past few months to enhance customers' abilities to find products more precisely. Some of these you've seen me mention in previous editions, other are newly announced. 

  1. Visual Suggestions – when someone searches for an item with a visual description such as “flannel shirt,” Amazon now shows suggestions with image thumbnails while they're typing such as “long sleeve” or “checkered” to help filter their search.
  2. Add text to your image search – customers can now add text to any image they upload to Amazon Lens to make their search more specific. For example, if uploading an image of a sofa, they can add text to specify a brand, color, material, or dimensions.
  3. More like this – customers can tap a button that appears on top of some photos in product search results to find similar items like it.
  4. Videos in search – customers can now watch product videos within the search results without clicking on a product for categories like home items, appliances, toys, and electronics. This is a great one! A very TikTok-esque way to search for and discover products.
  5. Circle to search – when customers are looking at an image that includes an item they're interested in, they can “circle” the item and search for it specifically.

Amazon says that its seen a 70% increase YoY in visual searches worldwide after releasing these new features.

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

Google Shopping Ads are now eligible to be shown in Google Lens results, giving advertisers a new placement to showcase their products in real-time. Users will now see detailed product information when using Google Lens to search such as price comparisons across retailers, current deals on the product, product reviews, and where to buy the item.


The European Union's top court ruled that social networks cannot keep using people's information for ad targeting indefinitely, which could have major implications on the way Meta and other ad-funded social networks operate in the region. Moving forward, social networks must limit how long personal data can be kept or face fines of up to 4% of global annual turnover.


ByteDance released a web crawler called “Bytespider” sometime in April, according to research from Kasada that was confirmed by Dark Visitors. The bot has quickly become one of the most aggressive scrapers on the Internet, scraping data at a rate that's as much as 25x of other major companies, including Google, Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI. Bytespider, like OpenAI and Anthropic, does not respect robots.txt, which while not legally binding, is supposed to signal to scraper bots not to crawl certain pages.

Early 2025 Prediction: ByteDance launches an AI search engine next year (independent of TikTok). 


Last December, Amazon slashed referral fees for merchants who sell apparel items under $20 to better compete with Shein, and new data suggests that the move has paid off. The selection and sales of under-$20 clothing has risen 27% since the fee change, compared to 5% growth the year prior. However a side effect of the apparel fee change is that first-party sellers are now more likely to lose the Buy Box to resellers, who can sell at a lower price and undercut the actual brand. In 2022, brands won their own Buy Box more than 89% of the time, but that number dropped to 77% in 2024.


Swiggy, an Indian food ordering and delivery platform that operates in more than 500 cities, launched Bolt, a 10-minute meals and beverages delivery service, across six major cities in India. The startup said it partnered with more than 2,700 restaurants including KFC, McDonald's, and Starbucks to deliver meals to customers within 10 minutes who reside within a 2-kilometer radius of the restaurants. Honestly, 10 minutes seems impossible. I wait longer than that for food to be made in most fast food restaurants, let alone to be delivered. 


Wondery, an Amazon-owned podcast studio known for its story-driven shows like Dr. Death, British Scandal, and Even the Rich, is launching a new line of toys tied to its kid's podcast “Wow in the World,” which it claims is the first toy line based on a podcast. The science-focused toys, which include a volcano kit and dinosaur collection that range from $14.95 to $29.95, will be sold on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Mastermind Toys, Nordstrom, and other retailers. 


TikTok partnered with InMarket to allow its advertisers to see new stats on how their in-app campaigns are performing offline. InMarket's measurement platform and closed-loop reporting will highlight TikTok's effect on driving store visits and sales through ROAS via physical retail actions. 


Millennials and Gen Xers are the top shoppers on Temu, Shein, and Amazon, according to new data from Numerator, which dispels the myth that Gen Z were the e-commerce apps' top fans. The study also found that 7 in 10 Temu shoppers are repeat buyers, with the average person spending $247 annually on the platform over an average of 6 orders — — which is no match to Amazon customers' average spend of $2,700 annually over 71 orders.


Shopify President Harley Finkelstein wants Canada to address the “600-pound beaver in the room” — which he feels is the lack of ambition weighing down on the country's tech sector, which has left Canadian companies with a reputation for being acquired while their US competitors grow more dominant by taking them over. Finkelstein instead wants Canadian companies to focus on striving for more rather than settling for being acquired, and wants more companies to be headquartered in Canada rather than the country being treated like a branch plant for bigger organizations. Canada’s industry minister François-Philippe Champagne echoed the call to boost ambition in the country, saying, “I could not agree more because for 10 years, I’ve always finished my speeches by saying, ‘Let’s seize the moment. Let’s be ambitious.’”


Microsoft won't impose a return-to-office mandate unless productivity drops, according to a high-level exec at the company. Microsoft currently allows employees to work remotely, with many new hires promised the flexibility of working from home at least half the week. Fortune asked Microsoft to comment on what specific metric would be used to rank productivity, and whether the process would be made transparent for employees, but the company has not yet made a statement on the matter. 


A federal judge ruled that the FTC can proceed with its case that Amazon operates as an illegal monopoly, according to two anonymous sources familiar with the ruling. The judge permitted the agency's claims that the company violated federal antitrust and competition laws to move forward, while tossing some of the claims brought by state attorneys general about alleged breaches of state law. The court is expected to unseal the order later this month.


5% of Adobe Commerce and Magento stores were hit with the CosmicString exploit, which is the name for a critical vulnerability that can be used to tamper with the pages of sites so that user data can be siphoned. Ray-Ban, National Geographic, Whirlpool, and Segway were among the thousands of brands whose e-commerce sites were compromised. Of the 4,275 merchants impacted, about half removed the malware, but it's possible that they may get hit with it again unless they took certain steps to change compromised keys. 


The American Apparel & Footwear Association recommended Meta's platforms for inclusion on the upcoming “notorious markets” counterfeiting list published by the Office of the US Trade Representative for the fifth time. The AAFA says that Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads have a “concerning volume and accessibility” of counterfeit goods on their platforms. The AAFA also named AliExpress, DHgate, and Shopee as platforms with a concerning level of counterfeit activity. 


Amazon is looking to hire 3,000 seasonal roles in Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Anaheim, and 30,000 full-time, part-time, and seasonal roles across California. (Wow, that many folks didn't want to return to office? LOL.) The company says that seasonal employees will have an opportunity to transition to full-time positions — which they say every year — yet still hire thousands of seasonal workers each holiday season, so I guess the full-time thing doesn't actually stick.


While Amazon is hiring thousands of seasonal workers, Morgan Stanley thinks it should cut more than 13,000 managers, which it estimates would save the company between $2.1B and $3.6B next year. The estimate assumes that 7% of Amazon's workforce is in management positions, but Amazon doesn't publicly disclose a breakdown of its workforce. 


As you might recall, X was suspended in Brazil since late August for failing to comply with court orders related to hate speech moderation and failing to name a legal representative in the country. Initially Elon Musk said he wouldn't budge on the matters, but later backpedaled on his decision in order to save his 5th largest market. On Friday, X filed a request to restore its services in Brazil after paying all its fines, but The Supreme Court determined that the company paid the fines to the wrong bank! As of now, the ban has not been lifted. 


Amazon shut down three more of its cashierless convenience stores in New York that featured its Just Walk Out technology, but the company says it remains committed to building out that technology as an offering for third-party merchants. Since 2023, Amazon has cut the number of Go stores it operates nearly in half. 


A U.S. District Court Judge ruled that TikTok users can proceed with a privacy lawsuit alleging that the company logged their keystrokes when visiting outside websites through TikTok's in-app browser, which if proven true, could support claims that TikTok violated federal and California state wiretap laws. The decision comes in a class-action complaint brought in November 2022 that alleged TikTok gathered a trove of personal data by tracking app users' activity in outside sites, including information about users' health.


Revolut, a UK-based fintech that offers banking services for consumers and businesses, criticized Meta over its approach to tackling fraud, claiming that the company should directly compensate people who fall victim to scams on its social network. Wood Malouf, Revolut's head of financial crime, said that Meta's plans to tackle financial fraud on its platforms amount to “baby steps, when what the industry really needs is a giant leap forward.” The company published a report alleging that 62% of user-reported fraud on its banking platform originated form Meta, down from 64% last year. 


Indonesia blocked Temu in the country, citing concerns over potential disruptions to the country's micro, small, and medium enterprises. Indonesia's Minister of Communications said the platform's direct sales model could jeopardize local vendors and small businesses, which form the backbone of the country's economy. So does this mean Temu has to buy part of Tokopedia in order to operate in the country again? 


Qoo10 CEO Koo Young-bae is under investigation for diverting funds from Korean e-commerce platforms, TMON and WeMakePrice, to assist with corporate acquisitions and the listing of its logistics unit, Qxpress, on Nasdaq. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office summoned Young-bae as a suspect on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and breach of trust. In July, TMON and WeMakePrice filed for court receivership, requesting that the court take control of their management, after failing to pay merchants for several weeks. At the time Young-Bae apologized and pledged to use his own assets to help compensate affected customers and vendors.


6 out of 10 employers say they have already fired Gen Z workers after hiring them fresh out of college earlier this year. 1 in 6 bosses say they're hesitant to hire college grads again after experiencing a number of issues with young new hires, with 1 in 7 bosses saying they may avoid hiring them altogether next year. TikTok creator @justwaynecreative claims that Gen Z doesn't understand that work is not the place to fully express one's authentic self, and that Gen Z isn't contributing enough to workplace culture or companies' bottom line to justify the demands they're making in regards to self-expression.


Amazon's AI chatbot Rufus doesn't like when customers ask for “dupes,” “knockoffs,” or “copycats” of expensive products and won't engage with those types of questions. The workaround is to simply ask the question differently, such as, to look for an item similar to one from a name brand, without using those trigger words. Well, that was easy!

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

Pallet, an all-in-one transportation and warehouse management system that uses AI to help businesses streamline their logistics operations, raised $18M in a Series A round led by Bain Capital Ventures. The company describes itself as an operating system for moving physical product from point A to B, leveraging AI so that users don't have to enter orders or respond to quote requests manually, along with other automations. 


Dexory, a robotics and data intelligence company that helps companies enhance inventory management and operational decision-making, raised $80M in a Series B round led by DTCP, bringing its total amount raised to $120M over the past three years. Dexory's platform performs rapid warehouse scans and creates digital twins of the spaces, allowing for future scenario simulations and optimizations, helping warehouses increase their inventory accuracy.


Vizit, a visual AI startup that helps brands engage customers with content that predicts their visual preferences, raised $25M in a Series B round led by Industry Ventures, bringing its total amount raised to $35M. The platform's patented “intuitive AI” tech interprets, measures, and predicts consumers' visual preferences to help them deliver personalized content that increases engagement and conversions. 


Mastercard entered into an agreement to acquire Minna Technologies, a Sweden-based platform that lets consumers manage subscriptions within their banking applications and websites, for an undisclosed amount. By adding Minna to its portfolio, Mastercard aims to provide simplicity in managing subscriptions with a central hub and enable clarity and transparency through features like digital receipts. 


Optimizely, a digital experience platform that helps organizations manage their digital presence and customer experience, acquired NetSpring, a warehouse-native analytics and visualization platform, for an undisclosed amount. The deal aims to enhance Optimizely's experimentation capabilities and solidify its position in the martech industry.


KOHO, a Canadian fintech company that offers a no-fee spending and savings account, raised $40M in equity and $150M in debt, in a round led by PROPELR Growth. The funds will be used for expanding its lending book, developing new products, and progressing towards obtaining a Schedule 1 bank license. 


Crescendo, an AI customer service startup that uses an AI assistant to answer simple inquiries and route requests it can't answer to its human customer service professionals, raised $50M in a Series C round led by General Catalyst at a $500M valuation. Alongside the funding round, Crescendo announced that it acquired PartnerHero, a Boise-Idaho-based business services provider and custom service solution that helps organizations field support requests.

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PAUL

Paul E. Drecksler
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PS: What do computers eat for snacks? Microchips, one byte at a time.

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