Wayflyer Raises $76 Million To Help eCommerce Businesses Grow

Dublin, Ireland-based Wayflyer has landed $76 million in funding, the company announced in a Thursday (May 27) blog post.

“Wayflyer exists to help eCommerce businesses grow, and to reduce the traditional barriers they face as they scale,” the company said, adding its fast growth reflects a “focus on solving our customers’ biggest problems and helping them achieve their goals.”

The company said it will use the new funding “to develop more solutions that help eCommerce businesses scale and develop our offering across the globe.”

The eCommerce company’s website says “thousands of businesses use Wayflyer to get funding and analytics” that help them grow. Investors include Speedinvest, QED Investors, DST Global and Left Lane Capital.

Wayflyer Co-Founder and CEO Aidan Corbett is an entrepreneur who also bootstrapped workplace education platform Kubicle and founded data analytics company Conjura.

Jack Pierse, chief financial officer and co-founder, has worked at venture capital firms in San Francisco and Dublin. Prior to Wayflyer, he worked for PwC and Highway1.

Last month, Wayflyer said in a blog post that it was partnering with Adobe Commerce, which offers companies a product that provides an end-to-end platform for dealing with customers. The partnership means that hundreds of thousands of eCommerce businesses using Adobe Commerce will have access to financing from Wayflyer.

A Wayflyer blog post said “our goal is to provide over 8,000 advances to eCommerce businesses through the partnership within the next year, helping Adobe merchants solve cash flow challenges.”

Wayflyer said that, since launching in April of last year, the company has provided over $130 million in funding to eCommerce businesses.

Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) were hit especially hard  by the pandemic. The 2021 New Merchant Business Models Playbook, a PYMNTS report created in collaboration with American Express, looks at how SMBs are adopting technologies and strategies that help them overcome obstacles. The Playbook offers a roadmap to SMBs for surviving and thriving.

Many restaurants had to go back to the drawing boards as they were hit by restrictions and lockdowns brought on by the health emergency. Retailers, too, had to respond to and address some consumers’ fears that the new coronavirus would linger on surfaces. In short, they had to look at new business strategies.