
Secured funding
Optoro, a software startup that allows brick-and-mortar retailers to sell unsold or returned goods to e-commerce sites, has raised USD23.5m in funding. The round was led by Revolution Growth, a firm started by AOL founders Ted Leonsis and Steve Case, and Grotech Ventures.
Maryland-based Optoro claims that 10% of all products bought from stores are returned and the company aims to help retailers take those items directly to online consumers. A Form D filing revealed that some USD3m of the capital will go to the company’s current shareholders. Leonsis of Revolution will join the Optoro’s board as a part of the round.
“Optoro has discovered a disruptive approach to solving one of the retail industry’s biggest and most costly logistics challenges,” said Revolution Growth co-founder Ted Leonsis, who will join Optoro’s board. “Our sweet spot is working with companies that have a big, built-to-last vision for attacking a significant market — and that’s exactly what Tobin and Adam are doing at Optoro.”
Whitepapers
Related reading
Central banks best suited to issue digital currencies
By Aaran Fronda A recent report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) said that central banks rather than private ... read more
Instant payments: innovations inbound for corporates
In 2020, instant payments look set to continue their current trajectory to become the biggest trend in payments. While these schemes already offer numerous benefits to corporates, leveraging innovations such as APIs and request to pay will go some way to unlocking their full potential, argues Michael Knetsch
Obstacles exist for banks to meet ECB’s instant payments goal
The cost of joining instant payment platforms will be one of many hurdles banks and payment services providers must overcome to meet ... read more
Banks must be aware of “biases” in data used to train ML models
Financial institutions need to be conscious of biases in the historical data that is being used to train machine learning (ML) models, ... read more