Abound, a wholesale marketplace that connects small businesses with independent retailers, just announced that it raised $36.7 million in fresh funding. The Series B was led by global investment firm the D.E. Shaw Group, and will be used to grow the startup’s team. Co-founder and CEO Bill Shope told Built In via email that Abound plans to double its overall headcount in 2022, adding that, while the company is “remote-first,” about a third of those new hires are expected to be in the NYC area.
This fresh funding comes less than a year after Abound closed on a $22.9 million Series A. Since then, its sales have nearly tripled, and the number of products available on its platform has doubled, Shope said. Now, the startup offers more than 400,000 products, adding thousands every week, and it has a network of more than 40,000 active retailers that span all 50 states and the United Kingdom.
“Demand for a modern wholesale platform is at an all-time high with skilled workers leaving large companies to bet on themselves as retail and product entrepreneurs,” Shope said in a statement. “At Abound, everything we do is centered around supporting small businesses. That mission is what drives our strategy and the day-to-day activities of our team.”
To that end, Abound will also use this money to build a new suite of tools in order to help brands manage their business both on and off its platform, helping them better compete with other brick-and-mortar and e-commerce companies.
This, no doubt, will come in handy as the larger online retail space continues to heat up. Fabric, a rising star in commerce tech, raised a $43 million Series A recently; and Faire, another wholesale marketplace, nearly tripled its valuation to more than $7 billion earlier this year after a $260 million raise.
Meanwhile, Abound’s model is in a position to help the wholesale commerce and trade show space, which D.E. Shaw Group managing director Edwin Jager says is “highly fragmented.”
“Abound empowers retailers to conveniently source and manage inventory from emerging and curated brands, while extending those brands’ audience reach and accelerating their time to market. We’re excited to support Abound’s strategic direction through our investment and board seat,” he added in a statement.
