Product Protection Firm Extend Unveils $260 Million Series C

Extend, which provides extended warranty and product protection plans for merchants and shoppers via application programming interface (API)-first offerings, unveiled a SoftBank Vision Fund 2-led $260 million Series C funding round, according to a Tuesday (May 18) announcement emailed to PYMNTS.

Existing investors PayPal Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners and GreatPoint Ventures also took part in the funding round, which additionally welcomed new investors 40 North, 10X Capital, Launchpad Capital, Tomales Bay Capital and Nationwide, according to the announcement.

“With this new injection of capital and vote of confidence from our investors, Extend is in a strong position to continue to invest in building best-in-class product protection that serves our merchant partners and their customers,” said Extend CEO and Co-founder Woodrow Levin.

The new round of funding will be used to continue growing the Extend workforce, to accelerate the firm’s technology footprint and to extend the services that bolster customer loyalty and fuel revenue for merchants, according to the announcement, which also noted that the oversubscribed round brings the firm’s overall funding to over $315 million.

Extend built a round-the-clock customer service chatbot named Kaley, which is powered by machine learning and can quickly adjudicate claims. “Extend’s transparent, white-glove experience means fewer headaches and faster resolution for customers, turning potential detractors into advocates,” the announcement said.

The company sold more than 300,000 protection plans last year, and said it is on pace to sell over three million of them this year. Extend has also grown its roster of merchant partners, which now includes Peloton, Harman/JBL, Balsam Hill, RealTruck, iRobot, Backcountry, BlendJet and Traeger Grills, among others.

“As more consumers shop online, merchants are keen to provide customers with greater peace of mind when making purchases. We believe Extend is reinventing the extended warranty industry through its leading platform, API solutions and consumer-first approach,” Nagraj Kashyap, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said in the announcement.

As the migration to digital from paper has sped up the transformation of many legacy businesses with aging tech, Levin previously told PYMNTS that it’s key to add extended warranties to that list