Ecwid, a leading provider of social commerce solutions for small businesses, has just secured $42 million from Morgan Stanley and PeakSpan Capital.
Using 54 languages to serve 1.5 million businesses across the world, Ecwid has made a long way since it was born in Ulyanovsk, 720 km east from Moscow, 10 years ago.
Now headquartered in San Diego, California, the company helps businesses sell via Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, Google, Wix, Square and other platforms. It also supports SEO and marketing campaigns via Google advertising, Facebook advertising, and more.
Since offline merchants can use these solutions to start selling online, Ecwid saw its transaction volume jump by 50% between March and April as the coronavirus stroke the world.
“Overnight, demand tripled because SMBs were under immense pressure to transition to online ordering. We at Ecwid are not worried about the Walmarts of the world but about the small guys and making it super easy for them. And so demand went through the roof,” said Ecwid founder Ruslan Fazlyev in an exchange with TechCrunch.
Currently and through the end of 2020, Ecwid offers its premium e-commerce tools for free to support small businesses affected by the pandemic.
Ecwid made a very moderate use of venture capital until now. Its last round of funding dates back to 2014, when it raised $5 million from iTech Capital and Runa Capital, two venture funds with Russian roots and global portfolios.
“Ecwid is arguably one of the most successful Russian startups of the past few years,” East-West Digital News wrote at that time. What was “arguably” the case six years ago is now an accomplished fact.
Ecwid founder Ruslan Fazlyev offered an interview to East-West Digital News back in 2013, as the startup began asserting itself on the international social commerce scene – still being headquartered, though, in Ulyanovsk.
