Highlights:

  • Convictional helps vendors launch new brands on their marketplace, dropship, and wholesale programs in minutes.
  • Convictional has already covered the North American market and recently expanded its consumer base to the UK.

A supplier enablement platform for distributors and retailers to launch new brands on their dropship, marketplace, and wholesale programs, Convictional, revealed that it has secured about USD 40 million in series B funding led by YC continuity. Also, Convictional welcomed YC Continuity Managing Director Ali Rowghani to its board. Significant investors, including Lachy Groom and FundersClub, were part of the funding round.

Ecommerce has seen tremendous growth in 2020, registering a 30 percent growth year-over-year. This has called upon the retailers to be fast and nimble to adapt to the ever-changing preferences of consumers. The industry continues to witness the same pace of growth in 2021, with the total retail sales up about 18 percent year-over-year in an industry that averages two percent to four percent of annual growth.

Many retailers find it challenging to make the shift quickly because of their dependence on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to onboard brands to their stores. As per an RMW Commerce study, onboarding a single vendor with EDI can take three to four months on average. Slow onboarding means retailers tend to onboard four to five new brands each quarter.

Convictional helps vendors launch new brands on their dropship marketplace, and wholesale programs in minutes, with one-click BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce integrations and the capability to onboard classic brands via EDI and CSV files. Ten days is the average onboarding time with Convictional and retailers can onboard 20 to 30 brands a quarter.

Enterprise retailers such as Harry Rosen, Indigo, Staples, and MADE.com can easily expand their product assortment, test new brands, and reduce inventory risk with Convictional’s supplier enablement software.

Convictional has already covered the North American market and recently, it expanded its consumer base to the UK by collaborating with MADE.COM.

YC Continuity is Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator’s growth fund. YC Continuity’s investments include tripe, Checkr, Segment, and Deel.

Convictional will utilize this funding to –

  • Fulfill its aim to allow firms of any size to automate Business to Business (B2B) trade.
  • Boost product innovation, especially with features for wholesale trade relationships.
  • Expand their sales and marketing efforts towards new consumer acquisition.

Convictional’s Series B round follows its USD 6.7 million Series A round in 2021 led by Lachy Groom, with participation from Scott Belsky (Chief Product Officer, Adobe), Claire Johnson (former stripe COO), Ram Shriram, and Dave Cheesewright (former CEO, Walmart International).

Experts’ view

Ali Rowghani, Managing Director, YC Continuity, said, “Convictional is modernizing B2B trade by making it drastically easier for retailers and brands to integrate.” He added, “Dropshipping is a $100B market in the US alone — and that is only a fraction of the overall wholesale opportunity they can serve with time. What is most exciting is that Convictional can help grow that opportunity even further: the easier it is for buyers and sellers to work together, the more products they can both sell.”

Rick Watson, Founder of RMW Commerce Consulting, said, “The retailers that are thriving have today found a unique playbook to co-exist with the continued rise of the global mega-marketplaces. That playbook includes three things: Identifying emerging brands before they become household names, onboarding and promoting them at lightning speed, and helping these brands tell their stories to the world.”

Roger Kirkness, Co-Founder at Convictional, Supplier Enablement for Enterprise Retailers, said, “Retailers value the speed and freedom that Convictional gives them to provide fresh and differentiated experiences to their customers.” He added, “That can be as simple as partnering with brands to capitalize on the latest Tik Tok trend. EDI is retail’s biggest hidden problem; Convictional is the solution.”

Andrea Limbardi, Chief Digital Officer, Indigo, said, “Indigo’s ongoing commitment to giving a platform for small and local businesses, in addition to large vendors, is realized through the most seamless vendor experience with Convictional.”

Geert Engels, Chief Technology Officer, MADE.COM, said, “MADE.COM partnered with Convictional to help power its curated marketplace. The speed and ease with which designer-makers, artisans, and smaller brands can be onboarded help to expand MADE’s homewares range through a dropship model.”