This week, Patagonia acquires nutritious snacks, and a juice company expands through flavorless beverages. Plus, software companies in Amazon marketplace sales, behavioral marketing and EDI raise new funding.
Funding
Threecolts raises $90 million
Threecolts, which provides cloud-based software for Amazon-based businesses, raised $90 million in a Series A funding round.
The round was led by Crossbeam Venture Partners and General Global Capital, with participation from Stratos and CoVenture.
Launched in 2021, the company has grown revenue 6x year-over-year, and made 14 acquisitions.
"Threecolts' impressive execution over the past year means that sellers can now access a one-stop shop solution for an increasing number of pain points, easing vendor fatigue and administrative loads,” said Sakib Jamal, senior investment associate at Crossbeam, in a statement.
Wunderkind raises $76M
Wunderkind, a behavioral marketing platform, raised $76 million in a Series C round, according to TechCrunch.
Financial services company Neuberger Berman led the financing.
Founded in 2010, Wunderkind recently brought on Bill Ingram as CEO. TechCrunch described the platform’s capabilities this way:
Founded in 2010, Wunderkind aims to scale brands’ abilities to foster customer relationships through digital channels. How? By analyzing smartphone and desktop web visitors’ real-time and historical behaviors to match value to intent, Ingram says.
Wunderkind claims it can determine who visitors are based on the web page that referred them and the content that they’re interacting with.
Wunderkind works with more than 1,000 brands, including Rag & Bone, HelloFresh, Uniqlo, Sonos and See’s Candy.
Odyssey Wellness raises $6.3M for functional mushroom energy drink
Odyssey Wellness, a sparkling energy drink with functional mushrooms, raised $6.3 million in a Series A round.
With functional mushrooms including Cordyceps and Lion’s Mane, Odyssey Wellness aims to promote brain performance, energy, focus, and mood without caffeine.
The brand launched in 2021, and is now available at over 5,000 brick and mortar locations, including natural, conventional retailers, and c-stores. The brand has also carved out a presence in upscale bars, restaurants, hotels and music festivals.
Crstl launches with $4.4M in seed funding for B2B ecommerce platform
Crstl, which provides a platform to DTC brands to do business with larger retailers and supply chain companies, raised $4.4 million in seed funding.
The financing was led by Mastry Ventures, with support from Village Global, Alumni Ventures, SuperAngel VC, On Deck, Mensch Capital Partners, Harizury, as well as founders and executives from Uber, Faire, Instagram, Stedi, ShipBob, OpenStore, Motive.
Crstl’s technology is provides an update to the electronic data interchange (EDI) that uses APIs and is built for commerce.
“There is palpable pain felt by thousands of U.S. brands expanding into retail. Diversification from direct-to-consumer to retail and marketplaces is not a nice to have, but a necessity today. And even when these brands win business with Target or Walmart or Whole Foods, they are stuck dealing with legacy solutions that create delays and big holes in their plans, and thus P&L,” said Fatima Husain of Mastry Ventures, in a statement. “Crstl is the painkiller these brands have been looking for: a faster, better, affordable EDI solution.”
Mergers and acquisitions
Moonshot acquired by Patagonia Provisions
Moonshot, a cracker brand, was acquired by Patagonia Provisions, the food and beverage division of Patagonia.
Moonshot is a climate-friendly snack brand that makes wheat using regenerative and organic practices, and has a supply chain where its farmer, miller and manufacturer are all located within 100 miles of each other.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Gen Z acquired by Langers
GEN Z, an aluminum bottled water company, was acquired by Langers, a family-owned company in the juice industry.
Founded in 2021, GEN-Z sells “flavorless, transparent liquid” in a reusable, recyclable bottle that cuts through Zoomer's high BS-meter.”
While the brand features critters on packaging and doesn’t take itself too seriously in messaging, it has a serious mission to reduce plastic waste. The brand initially grew through ecommerce.
In Langers, it is joining a company that has sought to push away from glass bottles, and is looking to “future-proof” its business, said CMO Erin Campbell.
Terms were not disclosed.
Criteo acquires offline media platform
Criteo, a commerce media company, acquired Brandcrush, a platform that enables buying of offline media.
Over the last year, Criteo has worked with a variety of retailers to establish retail media networks that enable advertising on their ecommerce marketplaces.
The addition of Brandcrush comes as additional opportunities emerge to serve digital advertising in stores and through other offline channels such as samples and inserts.
Brandcrush’s platform provides a single place to manage orders, inventory, and supplier management across channels.
Terms were not disclosed.
(Courtesy photo)
(Courtesy photo)
