Hoboken, NJ-based Flow has secured $37 million in Series B funding to drive its mission of helping businesses market, sell and ship to global consumers online by providing localized cross-border ecommerce experiences. The company was founded in 2015 by Robe Keve and Mike Bryzek.
“We have seen strong growth in consumers wanting to purchase from brands outside their domestic market and yet cross-border shopping remains as difficult and complex as ever,” for both brands and consumers, Keve said in a release.
Issues cited by Flow that hamper cross-border ecommerce include multi-currency pricing, accurately calculated taxes and duties, local payment methods, and direct international shipping options.
Flow has an AI-driven SaaS platform that layers over retailers’ existing software, creating a hyper-localized shopping experience across sites with local displays, formats, payments and catalogs. It also provides real-time duty, tax and restrictions feeds for purchases from any location, payment options including local currency and flexible, low-cost shipping options.
Contributing to the funding round were New Enterprise Associates, American Express Ventures and Latitude Ventures, joining existing investor Bain Capital Ventures. Flow will use the funding to build up its product offerings, for customer acquisition, staffing, and expansion in the U.S. and Europe. Keve said the existing and new investors will provide a broad network and expertise to aid in the company’s growth.
“As retail continues to evolve and more customers demand their goods from other countries, brands are recognizing the international opportunity for selling cross-border,” Lindsay Fitzgerald, Managing Director at American Express Ventures, said in the website release. “Flow’s platform helps retailers open up new sales opportunities and cater to a wider array of customers.”
Flow reports client growth of 200% in 2019, with a stable that include Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop, MVMT Watches, M. Gemi, Carbon38, Stadium Goods, MZ Wallace and Charles & Colvard.
“Before we partnered with Flow, our visibility into and tools to impact the cross-border landscape was limited,” Travis Heard, CFO and COO of Outerknown, said in the release. The planet-friendly men’s and women’s lifestyle apparel brand reported a 60% reduction in shipping costs, and global sales now accounting for 15% of total revenue.
A Zion Market Research report from August pegs the value of the global cross-border ecommerce market at $562.1 billion in 2018, with an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.4% pushing the value up to approximately $4.856 trillion by 2027.
Statista, meanwhile, projects cross-border ecommerce will hit $6.5 trillion by 2023, with purchases accounting for 22% of global ecommerce.