)While bankruptcies are rising! Ecommerce sales are growing!
Facebook pushing into payment with Whatsapp Pay!
Walmart & Shopify partnership
YouTube announces new shoppable ad format
Geek+ Robotics raises $200M, the rise of Robots!
Wise Systems delivery platform raises $15M.
Swappie Refurbished marketplace raises $40.6M.
Facebook brings payments to WhatsApp, starting in Brazil
Facebook has brought payments to WhatsApp for the first time, guess where? In Brazil!
This new feature is powered by Facebook Pay and will be rolled out on Whatsapp & Instagram. This could be a game changer for FB to monetize the 2billions Whatsapp users!
WhatsApp payment will allow users to buy goods from local businesses or send money to friends and family without leaving the app. This is a great timing to launch this solution as contactless payment are top of mind with concerns related to COVID19.
Walmart partners with Shopify to expand its online marketplace
The partnership will open Walmart’s Marketplace to Shopify’s small business sellers.
I think this is a great win win for both companies.
Walmart can expand its offering of products, especially the products of many successful Direct to Consumer brands on Shopify.
Shopify sellers can access Walmart Marketplace reach and traffic!
I read multiple times this week that this will help both companies to “win” against Amazon, let’s be clear and honest here, this partnership is a great way forward for both companies but this is not something which will disrupt Amazon in anyway…
YouTube announces a new shoppable ad format
YouTube is launching a new “shoppable” ad format by adding browsable product images underneath the ad to drive traffic directly to brands’. Did you know that 70% of people claim they’ve bought a brand’s product because they saw it in a YouTube video? Amazing no?
Great strategic move for youtube to become a key player in the future of shoppable video as well as to grow their advertising revenue!
Geek+ announces final closing of over USD$200 million Series C funding round
In the last couple of weeks, we have seen an acceleration and rising interest on new robotics solutions, this is mainly due to the explosive growth of ecommerce.
Geek+ is one of the leading company in the space of robotics and they just raised $200M to grow & scale their business. If you are interested to hear more around these trends on Robotics, join me Thrusday at 3PM CET for a great webinar with the CEO of ASTI Mobile Robotics (one of the world leader in Robotics Solutions), registration link below.
Techstars alum Wise Systems snags $15M in Series B to bring AI to logistics
Another delivery platform raising significant money riding the wave of ecommerce growth. I met the team of Wise System when they pitched their startup at the Techstars mobility pitch day and it’s amazing to see the progress that they have done since the accelerator. Deliveries to home and businesses are growing significantly so any company in the space with differentiated technology has a huge potential
Swappie bags $40.6M to sell more secondhand iPhones across Europe
Good for the planet, Good for wallet! That’s a great value proposition no?
That’s one of the key trend behind the rise of Ecommerce Marketplaces selling refurbished products.
Couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the +$110M fundraising of Backmarket which is the worldwide leading marketplace for refurbished products, as you can with this announcement, the competition is investing and raising money to join the party. The Finland based Swappie just raised $40M to grow into European markets and maybe beyond? Interesting times for the circular economy!
Cheers
Nabil,
Nabil Malouli
VP, Global Ecommerce Lead
DHL Supply Chain