The Venture Codex

Participated · Series B · Sep 2013

Branding Brand builds mobile-optimized e-commerce sites and native apps for retailers, transforming desktop sites into mobile experiences and licensing APIs for in‑house app development. The company powers mobile sites and apps for more than 200 top retailers, including American Eagle, Costco, Ralph Lauren and Sephora, and is the top mobile platform provider to the Internet Retailer top 500. Branding Brand reports nearly $1 billion in transactions running through its platform (up from $60 million in 2011), has seen 100 percent year-over-year growth, and was named to the Inc. 500 for three-year growth of 1,302 percent. Its proprietary technology transcodes desktop sites (using retailer APIs when available), outputs native experiences managed from a single dashboard, and the company has patented the process that translates site data into its APIs. Since its $7.5 million Series A last fall the company has seen a more than 100 percent increase in valuation and is expanding beyond online retail into transportation and hospitality with clients like Hilton Honors and San Francisco BART. Branding Brand also works with leading mobile shopping aggregators, provides in-house analytics to improve conversion, and licenses its APIs to retailers that want to build apps internally. The company plans to use additional capital to support vertical expansion and to enhance mobile and in-store products and partnerships. Branding Brand provides a mobile commerce platform that enables brands to extend their presence to smartphones, tablets and in-store channels. The company powers mobile sites and apps for major retailers including American Eagle Outfitters, Anthropologie, Costco, Sephora, Ralph Lauren, Dick’s Sporting Goods and others. Founded in 2008 by three Carnegie Mellon University friends, the team launched its mobile platform at the end of 2009 and has grown to become the largest m-commerce provider to the Internet Retailer Top 500. Headcount has expanded rapidly to over 100 employees, up from 10 two years earlier. The company recently hired Jeffrey R. Hennion, the former head of e-commerce at GNC and Dick’s Sporting Goods, as President to lead global marketing and e-commerce. The business will use new capital to fund customer acquisition, technology development, and operations.