Constructor Raises $55M to Improve eCommerce Search

eCommerce search platform Constructor has raised $55 million in a Series A funding round, the company said Wednesday (Sept. 15), which will be used to improve new product discovery and search standards.

“We’re incredibly proud of the real, measurable wins every one of our retail customers have seen both in revenue and user experience after implementing Constructor, all while doing the right thing on privacy,” Constructor Founder and CEO Eli Finkelshteyn said in the company announcement.

Constructor’s AI-based platform includes search, auto-suggest, browse, recommendations and collections. Each tool in the platform collects data and learns in real time from each query and user.

“We’re already delivering the biggest lifts in the industry, but the most exciting part is how much better the discovery experience can get with this new investment,” Finkelshteyn said. “Poor search and discovery has been the industry standard for too long. Retailers are tired of being promised AI they can’t see and personalization that doesn’t live up to its marketing hype, and which isn’t actually useful to customers.”

Silversmith Capital Partners led the fundraising effort for Constructor, with other investors including David Fraga, former president of InVision, who will be joining Constructor’s board; Kevil Weil, former head of product at Twitter and Instagram; Jason Finger, founder of Seamless; Carl Sparks, former CEO of Travelocity; Robyn Peterson, CTO at CNN; and Dave Heath, founder of Bombas.

Also contributing to the Series A funding effort were Ryan Barretto, president at Sprout Social; Melody Hildebrandt, EVP engineering and CISO at Fox; Zander Rafael, co-founder of Better.com; and Seth Shaw, CRO at Airtable.

The Cap Table Coalition, which expands opportunity for traditionally under-represented investors, also chipped in to the $55 million round.

Silversmith General Partner Sri Rao will join the Constructor’s Board of Directors as part of the deal.

Related: Google Aims To Help People Understand, Benefit From Search

Last month, Google announced in a blog post that it is crafting plans for an improved protocol to help people better understand how search works so they can find the answers on the web they need through “open and accessible” answers to the methods behind searches.

Google said in the post that it understands that many of the topics people are looking for information about might seem “complicated” and it is striving to make it seem less so while also giving users a better understanding of how Google Search works.