Bigcommerce raises $50m in Series D funding

E-commerce platform Bigcommerce has raised $50 million in Series D funding to develop the technology behind the company’s cloud-based platform and expand into new markets.

SoftBank Capital led the company’s latest funding round, which brought Bigcommerce’s total raised so far to $125 million. Telstra Ventures and American Express also participated, along with returning investors General Catalyst and Revolution Growth.

SoftBank Capital partner Steve Murray will join Bigcommerce’s board as part of the investment.

Eddie Machaalani, Bigcommerce’s co-founder and CEO, says having SoftBank represented on its board will help the company grow in Asia, one of its main target markets.

“We’re really excited about Steve Murray,” Machaalani told TechCrunch. “The Asia component is on board. Now we that we have a very strong U.S. presence, the question is what can we do to solidify our ability to expand internationally as well. We think we can learn a lot from Alibaba. It is phenomenal, the fastest-growing company on the planet, and we can help them grow as well.”

SoftBank Capital is the investment arm of SoftBank Corp, the Japanese telecom giant that owns about a third of Alibaba Group, making it the Chinese e-commerce giant’s largest shareholder. Last month, Bigcommerce integrated Alibaba.com into its platform.

Currently, 70 percent of its vendors are based in the U.S, where American Express will help expand the company’s presence. Telstra Ventures will also help expansion in Australia.

Bigcommerce’s platform is currently used by 60,000 vendors and it monetizes through predominantly subscription-based business model, the TechCrunch report said. According to the company’s research, e-commerce as a segment of the total worldwide retail market is growing at 30 percent a year and will hit $2 trillion in sales by 2015. Bigcommerce says it has seen “significant year-over-year revenue growth” and its merchants are now closing in on $5 billion in total sales.

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