Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital and Felicis Ventures joined forces to complete the funding round, which Shopify said will be put towards investments in “its technology, infrastructure and developer tools.”
Shopify director of business development and general counsel Harley Finkelstein told OBJ the company will make a local staffing push “immediately,” but wouldn’t speculate on how many local hires the firm might make. Shopify currently employs 30 full-time and 10 part-time staffers.
Shopify provides an online retail platform and App Store that helps so-called “brick and mortar” and other businesses transform their online presence.
“Each Shopify storefront is customizable and gives the user control over a shop's look and feel, in addition to setting up a streamlined checkout and the ability to easily integrate PayPal or a credit-card processor for payments,” the company said in a release.
The firm says it processes more than $100 million in revenue per year for customers as diverse as General Electric, Tesla Motors, Amnesty International and the Foo Fighters. It makes money by charging a subscription fee as well as a small fee per online transaction.
"Shopify has developed a breakthrough SaaS platform that makes it incredibly simple for retailers to create truly standout, easy-to-launch businesses online,” said Bessemer partner Alex Ferrara, who will join Shopify’s board, in a statement.
“Shopify's app store and its open APIs exemplify the continuing 'consumerization' of enterprise software, and the ease with which even small and mid-sized businesses can now offer a sophisticated online retail experience."
The Shopify App Store is a collection of Shopify apps the company says can extend the functionality of the online store.
“We founded Shopify because it was too difficult to get an online store up and running,” said Tobias Lutke, CEO and co-founder of Shopify.
“While we are already profitable, the support gives us additional resources to improve our products and add value for our users.”
Shopify was OBJ's fastest growing company of 2010 with a 1,174-per-cent growth rate.
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