Announcing Wayflyer’s Series B: $150m to help eCommerce businesses accelerate growth

Today I’m pleased to announce our Series B funding round of $150m. The raise brings Wayflyer’s valuation to $1.6bn, making us Ireland’s newest unicorn.

I’m thrilled to share that this round was co-led by DST Global and QED Investors, with existing investors Left Lane Capital and Guillaume Pousaz (Checkout.com founder) participating. We also welcome new investors Prosus, Madrone Capital Partners, and J.P. Morgan.

To the teammates, partners, and investors who have joined us on this journey, and the customers who have put their faith in us to help support their incredible ambitions, I want to say thank you. Your support has made this possible.

What does this investment mean for our customers, products, and team?

Becoming a unicorn is a massive milestone for us here at Wayflyer. I’m most excited about how this funding will enable us to better serve the remarkable and ambitious founders we work with every day. These are special people, building brands with huge potential. It takes a lot of courage, creativity, and drive to follow your passion and start something. It’s a privilege to work alongside them, helping to achieve their dreams.

But it’s a challenging environment.

The global eCommerce market is experiencing rapid growth and is expected to hit $5 trillion this year. However, the financial and supply chain ecosystems are still playing catch up. Things need a shake-up — and we’re leading the charge.

This investment will enable us to shape a new ecosystem for eCommerce. We will be able to continue hiring a world-class team, build game-changing products, and create the financial infrastructure to power global eCommerce.

Building the Wayflyer ecosystem

Since our launch in April 2020, we’ve been relentlessly focused on helping eCommerce businesses drive growth, by removing the barriers that limit their potential. We are a trusted partner to over 1,000 businesses worldwide and have plans to invest billions of dollars to help our customers grow in the years ahead.

We plan to continue offering the most flexible funding options, at the best rates. We’ve seen firsthand how better access to the right capital can help eCommerce businesses accelerate growth. With Wayflyer:

• Greg Hayes and the team at Branch scaled sales to $1.5 million/month
• Nick Allen and Dave Dave Skaff led Geologie to 10x year-on-year sales growth. This investment means we can reach so many more of these founders and businesses.

But there’s so much more to do, and much more we will do.

We have a unique opportunity to break down all barriers holding eCommerce companies back from achieving their lofty visions. Right now, we offer faster and simpler ways to access funding and actionable insights to help eCommerce businesses scale. But there are many more opportunities out there. This is just the beginning.

Global supply chains are at breaking point, and sourcing products, manufacturing, and freight are enormous obstacles for eCommerce businesses — these are the headaches keeping founders up at night. For Wayflyer to truly be successful, we need to equip founders with everything they need to get beyond these obstacles and achieve incredible things.

We have huge plans for 2022, and more news about our expansions and new products will be coming soon.

Growing our team so we can move faster

Just two years ago, Wayflyer was a handful of people in a Dublin basement trying to figure out how we could best help eCommerce companies grow faster. Fast-forward to the start of 2021, we had grown to a team of 40 people. Now we’re over 250. And our expansion plans mean we’ll more than double our team by the end of this year.

As our team grows, we can move faster and serve more founders with more products. In 2021, as our team scaled, so did the number of customers we helped — with the funding we provided to customers growing 900%. And this year, we’ll be moving at lightspeed to do all we can to help our customers reach the next level.

We’ll be expanding our team in all business areas and bringing more world-class talent to Wayflyer. We’ll follow up on our successful expansion into Spain and the Netherlands by launching into new regions. And soon, Wayflyer will go beyond funding and insights to help our customers burst through more of the barriers currently limiting their growth.

Join us to shape the future of eCommerce

Seeing our team thrive is one of the most rewarding aspects of being CEO. You can’t beat the feeling of being part of a team of people who genuinely feel like they're doing the best work of their careers. There aren’t many companies that truly give people the opportunity to reach their full potential. But I’m proud to say that Wayflyer is one of them.

If you want to shape the future of eCommerce with us, we’re hiring for a bunch of roles in all departments.

Likewise, if you are an eCommerce business looking to take your growth to the next level, let’s chat about how we can help.

More details about our Series B round can be found in our press release.