French-born Mirakl, a startup that provides technology to launch an e-commerce marketplace for brands like Urban Outfitters, J. Crew, Office Depot, raised $70 million led by Bain Capital Ventures.
Existing investors 83North, Felix Capital and Elaia Partners also participated in the round. Bain Capital Ventures Partner Scott Friend led the round whose previous investments include Jet.com and Rent the Runway.
This round brings the company's total venture capital to $100 million.
Founded in 2007 in Paris by Philippe Corrot and Adrien Nussenbaum, Mirakl provides a turnkey tech platform to brands and manufacturers to allow them to set up their own marketplace. The company's services include onboarding third-party sellers, making and managing product catalogs and order orchestration. It also provides operations support and trains their client teams to run an online marketplace.
Mirakl moved to Boston four years ago after meeting with some success in Europe. The company has an office near Davis Square in Somerville and employs a staff of 50 people. Mirakl's CEO Nussenbaum noted that he was keen on raising funding from a Boston-based investor.
"Our key goal through this was to find an investor who would be local, and there is no better representation of Boston than Bain Capital," Nussenbaum said.
Armed with a strong clientele of over 200 global brands including Walmart (Mexico), Best Buy (Canada), Urban Outfitters and B2B clients including Toyota Material Handling, Siemens Mobility, and Office Depot, Mirakl wants to help brands resist Amazon by enabling them with the technology to do it themselves. The company added 60 new clients and launched 37 e-commerce marketplaces in 2018.
"Before starting Mirakl, my co-founder and I had spent six years having our own online marketplace, because we wanted to resist Amazon," said Adrien Nussenbaum co-founder and CEO. "We decided we would help other companies enjoy the same benefits and successes we were able to enjoy. Very often, a lot of established companies fail to achieve their goal because of technology."
Nussenbaum noted that his company set out to build a strong technological infrastructure for big retailers and brands to keep up with Amazon's standards. Mirakl's value proposition, the co-founders decided, would be to provide amazing technology and professional support to allow their clients to run their own marketplace.
Mirakl has offices in Boston, Barcelona, London, Munich, São Paulo and Stockholm. Nussenbaum said that Mirakl will soon expand to the Asia Pacific region. In Boston, the company plans to hire more than 60 people in Boston for roles in sales, business development, customer success, marketing and operations.
Editor's note: Curious to know why French startups are moving to Boston? Read our feature here.
