June 27, 2024 - Pear Commerce, the retail ecommerce enablement platform for omnichannel brands, announced today that it has closed a $10 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Stage 2 Capital, following exceptional 5x year-over-year growth and Pear’s role in powering the shoppable experiences for five of the top 20 CPG companies. Additional participation in the round includes Heartland Ventures, Homegrown Ventures, Dundee Venture Capital, M25, and Daren Cotter.
Modern consumers expect an omnichannel shopping experience that bridges channels, platforms, and devices. Pear builds all digital pathways to purchase for a brand, from brand.com and brand media to retail.com. It transforms any CPG brand asset into a unified shopping experience, streamlining the consumer journey from awareness to purchase. Pear’s technology uniquely creates shoppable experiences to over 3,000 retailers and 165,000 store locations–updating inventory daily–creating frictionless purchase paths while capturing actionable insights on consumer behavior.
Owning the digital paths to purchase enables brands to understand the key drivers of performance and optimize their marketing budgets around crucial events such as clicks, retailer selections, and purchase confirmations. Plus, Pear integrates with all major ad platforms so brands can build owned custom audiences of these retail ecommerce shoppers, improving their return on ad spend.
The funding follows Pear’s most recent product launch, Pear Connect—a shoppable ad unit that integrates where-to-buy technology directly into the ad itself, sending shoppers from CPG brands’ digital ads to retailer websites in a single click. Pear Connect enhances existing social and display ad creative by dynamically serving the in-stock product and retailer combinations most likely to be selected, using Pear’s daily inventory scanning technology and the ad platforms’ algorithms. Pear will continue to own the digital paths from brand to retailer with the introduction of its new recipe product, further solidifying its position on creating seamless shoppability for brands.
"Our vision is to empower CPG brands with the same transparency and efficiency that direct-to-consumer brands enjoy," said Eric Martell, Co-founder of Pear Commerce. "This funding will help us grow our team and enhance our technology to provide exceptional support and insights for our clients, ensuring that every marketing dollar is optimized for maximum impact.”
"Pear’s technology is fundamentally changing the way CPG brands engage with consumers, making it easier for them to meet their customers wherever they prefer to shop," stated Alex Wyler, Co-founder of Pear Commerce. "With this investment, we’re excited to expand our product development and provide more brands with the comprehensive data and insights needed to drive meaningful growth."
The Series A funding round aligns with Pear’s commitment to continue innovating and expanding its platform, in order to meet the evolving needs of CPG brands, retail partners, and their customers. New initiatives and product launches are on the horizon, poised to further enhance the retail ecommerce landscape.
"Pear Commerce is transforming how brands connect with consumers in the retail ecommerce space," said Liz Christo, Partner at Stage 2 Capital. "Their cutting-edge technology and commitment to innovation are setting new benchmarks for the industry. We are excited to support Pear’s journey as they expand and redefine how the market thinks about shoppable media."
The Series A investment will accelerate Pear Commerce’s mission to make everything shoppable and unlock the direct-to-consumer marketing playbook for CPG brands. The funding will be used for product development, market expansion, and hiring, including the addition of three key positions: Vice President of Sales, Vice President of Engineering, and Head of Customer Success.
The first go-to-market venture capital firm, Stage 2 Capital combines capital and GTM execution expertise, leveraging its elite LP base of 600+ senior executives from unicorns and Fortune 500 firms to help portfolio companies scale revenue and accelerate growth. Co-founded in 2018 by Jay Po, former investor at Bessemer Venture Partners, and Mark Roberge, former Founding CRO at HubSpot, Stage 2 Capital invests in B2B software companies between seed and Series A.
For more information, visit: www.stage2.capital.
Founded in 2018 by Eric Martell and Alex Wyler, Pear Commerce connects CPG brands to retailers, converting shoppable tools into actionable insights that fuel performance marketing. Today, Pear’s comprehensive suite of shoppable products includes: Pear Connect, Store Locators, Shoppable PDPs, Landing Pages, and Direct-to-Cart Links.
Learn more at www.pearcommerce.com.
For media questions or inquiries, please contact Pear Commerce at hellothere@pearcommerce.com.
For more information on Pear’s open roles, please visit www.pearcommerce.com/careers.
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