Starcart Raises $3.7 Million to Expand Shopping Assistant Platform

Finnish eCommerce platform Starcart hopes to expand throughout Europe following a seed funding round.

“With this funding, we’ll be scaling up the business internationally and launching in multiple European markets next year,” CEO and founder Pasi Ilola wrote on LinkedIn Monday (Aug. 28) after the company raised $3.7 million. “We’ll also be adding new members to the best eCommerce team around.”

According to its website, Starcart is a “smart shopping assistant” that connects users to the relevant stores and products they wish to shop.

“We’re on a mission to remove the friction from buying the things you need, and it seems that people like what we’re doing,” Ilola wrote. “Our sales have grown 15-fold in just nine months, and customer satisfaction is at 4.5 / 5 stars.”

The company’s funding comes at a time when consumers are seeking a “meaningful and efficient experience” from eCommerce merchants, as Andrew Monroe, global head of gaming and media at Worldline, told PYMNTS recently.

However, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach in creating that experience, Monroe added, noting that strategies in reaching that goal will vary from  merchant to merchant due to differences in local payment preferences and practices across different markets and regions.

From a payments perspective, however, Monroe said optimizing checkout is the place to begin, with merchants providing a seamless checkout flow that tries to prevent cart abandonment and lost sales.

“They should get enthralled by the goods or services they want to buy and then get it,” he said. “Everything in between is the merchant facilitating the checkout experience.”

Starcar’s new financing is also happening at a moment when the startup world is undergoing a historic drop with a venture funding drought threatening hundreds of businesses that had previously enjoyed funding.

Investors have sharply cut back on funding for tech and early-stage startups in the United States, leading to a 49% decline in tech startup investments in the year ended June 30, per a recent Wall Street Journal report.

The decline has led to a steady stream of venture-backed companies being forced to shut their doors or downsize this year, that report said.