Symphony Commerce Raises $11 Million In VC Funding

Symphony Commerce, a startup that provides cloud-based technology for eCommerce platforms, raised $11 million in venture capital funding during August. The venture capitalists that took part in the latest round of fundraising include Charles River Ventures, Blue Cloud Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and FirstMark Capital. With the funding, the company plans to grow its fulfillment business.

According to a report, Symphony helps companies like Gatorade and Hershey manage their web business and plans to increase its own logistics services by enabling the companies to offer faster shipping. Using order management tools and a network of warehouses, Symphony claims its logistic services will make it easier for big companies to provide two-day shipping or same-hour delivery in major cities. Symphony is making fulfillment services a bigger focus of the company because of pressure retailers and brands face from Amazon and on-demand delivery apps that have boosted the expectations among consumers in terms of when they receive packages and orders.

Shipping efficiency remains “largely an unsolved problem,” CEO Harish Abbott said in the report. “How do you make sure the order gets fulfilled on time, accurately and cost-effectively?” The company, which also creates developer tools to run websites, views itself as a Commerce-as-a-Service business that can help beverage companies and fashion brands by offering a whole suite of products, from web design to inventory management.

“Being an online store is not enough; you need to be able to manage these orders and fulfill these orders,” Devdutt Yellurkar, general partner at Charles River Ventures, said in the same report as to why the firm invested in Symphony. “Symphony is unique because they bring all these capabilities in one platform.” Symphony isn’t alone. Other players in the space include Magento, BigCommerce, Shopify and Demandware, all of which want to capitalize on the online shipping industry.