Shoptalk, a retail and e-commerce conference and Commerce Ventures have launched a new investment vehicle.
Shoptalk Ventures will look to invest $1m to around 20 e-commerce and retail technology startups, over the next two years. The investment review, selection and due diligence will be managed independently by Commerce Ventures.
Investments made by the new investment vehicle will be made alongside other venture capital firms.
Commerce Ventures was very active in the FinTech sector last year, closing a range on investments. At the end of the year, Commerce Ventures took part in the $17m Series B round of finance AI platform Kasisto. The company supports financial institutions with engaging, supporting and transacting through smart-bots.
Other deals closed last year include retirement financial advisor Vestwell, digital identity verification company Socure, and online home insurance provider Kin Insurance.
Shoptalk founder and CEO Anil Aggarwal said, “Our goal with Shoptalk Ventures is to further support the early stage startup ecosystem that’s enabling retail and ecommerce as it continues to transform for a digital age.”
Last year, the e-commerce sub-sector of payments and remittances, picked up the largest share of funding, according to data by FinTech Global. Of the total $11.9bn that was invested in the payments and remittance space, e-commerce companies received around 58 per cent of this.
Asia is the biggest market for e-commerce companies, with it seeing 84 per cent of the capital deployed to the sub-sector.
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