Fast-growing e-commerce infrastructure startup Pietra has successfully raised $16 million in a new funding round led by M13. This new capital will be used to grow Pietra’s platform and expand its membership plan for e-commerce businesses. Pietra’s one-of-a-kind business membership program gives e-commerce businesses the software and infrastructure they need to grow their brands while staying as lean as possible. Members will get access to cutting edge research and product development tools, a fast growing network of vetted product and packaging manufacturers, a private fulfillment center, and access to a sales network that helps brands sell more products. Additionally, Pietra is building a suite of software tools that brands normally pay for, but are included with each membership.
This funding adds to a $5M Seed round led by A16Z and a $15M Series A round led by Founders Fund. Familiar investors who also used this opportunity to invest alongside M13 were Founders Fund, TQ Ventures, and Abstract Ventures – all doubling down on the company. As part of the round, Carter Reum and Brent Murri of M13 will join the board.
Pietra’s innovative membership program gives businesses of all sizes a unique advantage when it comes to how they build and operate their companies. As a Pietra member, a brand will get access to many tools that will reduce costs and save time on operational headaches that plague many businesses. A large focus of the platform is focused on automating parts of a brand’s supply chain, which are still being impacted by COVID.By the end of 2021, 61% of small businesses said that their supply chains had been disrupted by the pandemic with 63% saying they had to alter their supply chains in the past six months. This led to nearly half of these business owners saying that these disruptions had made it difficult to keep up with demand.
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“Fast-growing e-commerce infrastructure startup Pietra has successfully raised $16 million in a new funding round led by M13. This new capital will be used to grow Pietra’s platform and expand its membership plan for e-commerce businesses”
“We are building an ecosystem that will power the next generation of commerce. Much like Amazon paved the way for e-Commerce in the last few decades, Pietra is paving the way for brands to start and scale in ways we’ve never seen before: leveraging the full power of technology to automate a businesses operations and remove the need to hire large teams of people. This has the ability to change the way commerce works at the most fundamental level, and ultimately, makes it easier for entrepreneurs and brand owners to win.” says Ronak Trivedi, CEO of Pietra.
Over the past year, Pietra has experienced exponential growth, with 100,000+ entrepreneurs and brands joining the platform to use its free features like print-on-demand manufacturing. The company’s membership program, geared towards scaling eCommerce businesses, now has over 9,000 members, and is growing fast. Early members of the platform were solopreneurs and Creators who were looking to start their first business, but now Pietra is seeing a surge in larger e-commerce brands who are using Pietra to scale up efficiently. The rise of fast growing e-commerce brands in Pietra’s waitlist has spurred the company’s evolution to expand beyond the Creator economy and into the much larger market of e-commerce enablement, positioning itself as a key player in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecosystem.
“Pietra has a highly talented founding team and has demonstrated remarkable product-market-fit. We are excited to support Pietra in their journey to disrupt the commerce landscape for scaling e-commerce brands and creators,” said Carter Reum, co-founder and Managing Partner at M13. “Through my own consumer operating and investing experience, and watching first-hand as my wife has built a creator-led brand that grossed $4B+ revenue over the last decade, I have had a unique vantage point in seeing the excess cost and re-creating the wheel that ecomm operators experience every day. Pietra is by far the best platform I’ve seen that allows operators to scale faster and in the most cost-effective way to build their businesses.”
In 2022, Pietra achieved a remarkable 100x increase in transaction volume and a 35x increase in revenue year-over-year. Pietra’s sourcing, logistics, and e-commerce business units all became 7 figure businesses within the first 6 months of launching and continue to grow rapidly.
Pietra’s customer base includes both fast-growing DTC brands and creator-led businesses. Today, 90% of the company’s largest customers come from its DTC customer base. There are 33.2 million small businesses in the US, which account for 99.9 percent of all US businesses.
Part of the new funding will be used to launch its revamped “Pietra Membership Program,” which offers a comprehensive monthly subscription that includes all the essential infrastructure and software for anyone looking to start or run a DTC business. Pietra not only provides thousands of dollars worth of software for free to its members, including returns software, influencer marketing tools, and more, but also provides a connected ecosystem of infrastructure – like an industry leading private fulfillment center – that’s connected directly to a brand’s supply chain.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Carter to the board and the entire M13 team to the Pietra family,” said Tala Akhavan, COO of Pietra. “Carter’s background paired with M13’s expertise in e-commerce
software and consumer products will help Pietra get to the next level. He’ll join our board with existing heavyweights like Keith Rabois, who was instrumental in our growth thus far, and allow us to accelerate even faster. We’re excited to work together to enable entrepreneurs and brands around the world to thrive.”
Pietra has plans to expand internationally, allowing entrepreneurs from around the world to start and run their businesses from anywhere, selling to customers worldwide, powered by Pietra.
The company also doubled its team and expanded its operations to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and plans to double down on its New York presence in 2023.
“Our vision is to democratize entrepreneurship and empower founders and brands to succeed in the evolving digital landscape, ” added Pan, Pietra’s Co-Founder and CTO. “The Pietra Membership is a game-changer for SMBs, saving them significant costs and time while providing them with the essential tools and support they need to thrive. We look forward to scaling our offerings, expanding internationally, and continuing to fuel the success of entrepreneurs and brands worldwide.”
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