Finnish e-commerce startup Starcart announced it has raised €3.5M in a seed round of funding led by Nordic early-stage investor Inventure.
The round also saw participation from Business Finland, who provided a €400K R&D loan, and other Finnish angel investors.
With the funding, Starcart says it will scale its AI-powered shopping platform and expand into new markets across Europe in 2024. The company plans to add hundreds of new stores to the platform.
A unique shopping platform
Starcart says it has seen explosive growth since its launch in Finland in 2022. The company’s sales volume has increased by more than tenfold in the past six months and is currently experiencing double-digit monthly growth.
According to Pasi Ilola, founder and CEO of Starcart, online shopping has become increasingly popular over the past two decades. However, it has also become more time-consuming for consumers due to the sheer number of products and stores available online, as consumers must sift through many options before purchasing.
“Starcart was created to solve this problem, and to make online shopping easy and enjoyable,” said Ilola.
Starcart says it is the only end-to-end shopping platform that allows consumers to buy items from multiple stores with just one click. The platform uses AI technology to find the best prices, availability, and shipping times for over 15 million products from over 130 stores. Then, it automatically makes the purchases for the consumer.
The company completely removes the workload of comparing prices, finding availability, and completing checkouts. Consumers can select the products they wish to purchase, and Starcart will do the rest. This platform’s model is similar to travel aggregators that allow consumers to find the best flight or hotel deals within one platform.
As a result, the reception for Starcart has been “overwhelmingly positive,” with 4.5 out of 5 stars of customer satisfaction rate.
“The feedback from merchants has also been very positive, with the low barrier of entry into the platform especially appreciated,” adds Ilola.
Future potential
Statista projected that the global e-commerce market will grow from $3.6T (€3.33T) in 2023 to $5.6T (€5.18T) by 2027. Based on eMarketer’s data, the sector’s share of retail sales is also expected to grow from around 20 per cent in 2023 to nearly one-fourth of all retail sales by 2026.
Starcart’s unique AI-powered technology makes it well-positioned to capture a significant share of this market potential.
“Starcart’s insane metrics speak for themselves. The potential here is absolutely enormous, and the Starcart team is well on their way to rebuild and redefine the online shopping experience in Europe,” says Lauri Kokkila, Partner at Inventure and an early investor in the company.
“In the near future, we’re planning to also make it easy for consumers to shop sustainably by introducing second-hand stores and recommending sustainable products and shipping method options for our customers,” adds Ilola.
Ilola further says that the company is rapidly moving towards its ultimate vision of making Starcart the only shopping tool people need, especially with the recent funding. The company believes this is something that people actually want, as it makes their everyday lives easier.
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/starcart-secures-3-5m/
