Commerce pioneers Vibhu Norby and Sydney Werber join the team working to identify and fund the next Shopify in its seed round
Interlace Ventures announced it has expanded its team with two commerce technology luminaries. Vibhu Norby and Sydney Werber will join as venture partners while retaining their respective roles at b8ta and Avise, bringing their insight and expertise as operators who are reinventing commerce. Backed by Bain Capital Ventures and some of the largest entities in retail, fashion and consumer packaged goods (CPG), Interlace Ventures invests exclusively in early stage commerce infrastructure companies.
Read More : Alida Welcomes New Chief Revenue Officer to Accelerate Global Growth
Norby joins Interlace Ventures to support the fund’s portfolio and expand its network. He is a repeat entrepreneur, Y Combinator alumnus, commerce innovator and previously a lead engineer at Nest Labs, which was acquired by Google in 2014. He will retain his current position as CEO & co-founder of b8ta—the retail-as-a-service company that has launched thousands of products and is changing how online brands engage with customers in stores around the world.
“Interlace is a top-tier fund investing in the infrastructure of modern commerce, an area I am deeply passionate about,” said Vibhu Norby, venture partner at Interlace Ventures. “I’m thrilled to join as a venture partner to invest in and advise companies in this fast-growing space.”
Werber brings to Interlace Ventures her impressive social and video commerce expertise, which she honed as VP Strategy and Finance at ShopShops, a global livestream shopping platform. She will support the investment practice while retaining her role as VP Finance and Operations at Avise, a financial SaaS platform in beta. A seasoned angel investor and executive with strong experience in new digital commerce between the US and China, she will help Interlace Ventures deepen its expertise in social commerce while widening its global footprint.
“I’m excited about building social commerce experiences that rethink how Western consumers shop,” said Sydney Werber, venture partner at Interlace Ventures. “The challenges brought on by COVID-19 have also presented unique opportunities for brands to accelerate the offline-to-online bridge, and I look forward to helping build the next generation of commerce giants with Interlace Ventures.”
Read More : SalesTechStar Interview with Sam Zayed, Chief Revenue Officer at Conga
As consumer behavior and expectations continue to evolve, the commerce experience must also transform. Customers have come to expect a more personalized, convenient, and sustainable experience; technology allows both traditional retailers and emerging players to deliver on that promise. Interlace Ventures invests in pre-seed and seed-stage commerce companies, with the goal of identifying and funding the next Shopify in its early stages. Today’s consumers are also more diverse than ever before, a reality that is reflected in both the team and its portfolio—55% of its companies are led by underrepresented founders. The funds’ existing portfolio includes innovative, proven concepts such as Alloy Automation, b8ta, Cargo, CommerceJS, ForDays, and Olive.
In addition to strategic capital, Interlace Ventures offers its portfolio unparalleled access to executives at leading global brands such as Mars, Inc. The fund has created a unique Commerce Platform which gives corporations and e-commerce websites access to the most innovative companies in commerce technology. Executives at the world’s largest retail, fashion and CPG brands look to Interlace Ventures to connect them with exciting startups building new commerce experiences, technology and infrastructure.
“We’ve created a unique alignment between our companies, limited partners, and network. This allows us to deliver both business and capital to our portfolio,” said Joseph Sartre, Managing Partner at Interlace Ventures. “Very few seed funds take a diverse, global approach, but our boots-on-the-ground experience as operators enables us to help large corporations identify, connect and integrate the latest technologies.”
Read More : Sales Recovery: Road Map to Post-Pandemic World