Australian B2B Marketplace TradeSquare Raises $28M

Australian online wholesale marketplace startup TradeSquare has landed $28 million in funding from investment firm Tiger Global, according to published reports.

“This investment will allow us to scale in a very significant way and build upon our rapidly growing business proposition and model, our use of smart technology, and the strong executive team that we have put together,” said Co-founder Nati Harpaz, quoted Wednesday (Jan. 19) in Inside Retail.

Tiger Global had also invested in the consumer marketplace Catch, where Harpaz had been CEO before it was sold in 2019.

As we noted at the time of its launch in 2020, TradeSquare gives small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) access to more than 150,000 offerings from more than 1,000 suppliers in one space, along with reduced wholesale pricing and low-minimum order quantities.

Founder and CEO Einat Sukenik said the company’s mission is to give Australia’s smaller firms the ability to receive the products they need quickly and easily from a single digital platform, so they can devote more time to helping customers.

Read more: TradeSquare Introduces Marketplace For Australian Firms With Mirakl

Unlike consumer platforms, TradeSquare is open only to businesses, nonprofits and government organizations. As Inside Retail noted, the company’s business model arrived just as COVID closed down trade shows and limited the number of in-person sales calls.

“The old way of bringing wholesalers and retailers together was trade shows or overseas buying trips, but these disappeared during Covid,” said Sukenik. “You can think of TradeSquare as a 24/7 digital trade show — allowing retailers to easily discover and order wholesale products, and wholesalers access to retailers Australia-wide.”

Sukenik said her company is key to making Australia’s economy “fairer and healthier” by giving small businesses the tools to discover and order wholesale products with ease.

“Yesterday a gift and homeware shop in Dubbo placed an order from 11 wholesalers in one cart, with one invoice and 60-day credit terms,” she said. “This is a game-changer, especially with Covid still restricting retail business activity.”