Swiftly Valued at More Than $1 Billion in Latest Funding Round
Grocery-tech company raised more than $100 million in a funding round led by venture-capital firm BRV Capital Management
Swiftly Systems Inc. raised $100 million in its latest funding round, boosting the valuation of the grocery-tech company to more than $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The capital infusion, from BRV Capital Management and others, is the second funding round this year for Swiftly and values it at $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion, one of the people said. In March, Swiftly said it raised $100 million in a Series B funding round led by Wormhole Capital.
Swiftly works with bricks-and-mortar grocery stores, pharmacies and convenience stores to upgrade their mobile apps and websites and to power their loyalty programs. Swiftly makes its money by selling ads for the retailers on their apps and websites. As of now, the Seattle company has signed 22,500 individual stores in the U.S. to its platform.
The funding round comes during a tough time for private companies seeking fresh capital as stock- and bond-market volatility take a toll. After a year-and-a-half of boom times for venture-capital check writing, the investors have become more conservative with their cash, even as they sit on a record pile of it.
That has contributed to pressure on the valuations of higher-profile players in the grocery ecosystem such as Instacart Inc. and Gopuff.
“Fundraising is always really hard,” said Sean Turner, chief technology officer of Swiftly. “It’s even harder in this environment.” He said the company chose to raise more money in a Series C funding round now to scale the business.
BRV Capital, which has offices in Korea, Japan, China and Silicon Valley, will join the board and help Swiftly as it considers expanding beyond the U.S.