The Boston-based software company Wonderment, which provides order tracking technology for Shopify merchants, today announced a $6M seed round.
Founded in March 2020, Wonderment’s software platform helps small businesses on Shopify’s e-commerce site track their shipments and automatically notify customers about delayed or lost packages. The platform pulls data from shipping carriers and warehouses. Wonderment currently works with hundreds of merchants in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Wonderment raised $1M in pre-seed funding in July 2020 and launched the first version of its platform in October.
The seed round was led by CRV, formerly known as Charles River Ventures, with participation from Underscore VC and Defy.vc. The company said several local business leaders also joined the round, including Klaviyo co-founders, Andrew Bialecki and Ed Hallen; Loop CEO Jonathan Poma; Shopify product lead Guillaume Racine; and several founding employees of HubSpot.
“Wonderment understands the needs of its customers like no other. The strength of the founding team is incredible and it’s clear they’ve tapped into a big, unmet market opportunity,” Reid Christian, general partner at CRV, said in a statement. “Wonderment’s initial outcomes and amazing year of growth prove that this model is much-needed and already heavily embraced by leading Shopify brands.”
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The company was built by CEO Jessica Meher, a former marketing executive at Notarize and HubSpot; Brian Whalley, who previously held roles at Klaviyo and HubSpot; and Wesley Abbey, a software engineer from Wayfair and Drizly.
When Meher and Whalley founded Wonderment, they knew the startup would become an e-commerce company serving small businesses. After several months of research, they learned the challenge was retaining customers and providing good customer service while dealing with supply chain issues. Meher and Whalley saw an opportunity to create a new order tracking technology, and they brought on Abbey to make it a reality.
Meher said tools that improve the shipping experience are crucial for small businesses, many of whom do not have physical locations.
“Especially in the pandemic, when a lot of retailers were really adopting that drive up and we’ll give you the product [model], our customers didn’t have that option,” she said. “And what we’ve learned is that when there is a shipping delay or an issue, a lot of consumers kind of blame the merchant.”
Without tracking technology, consumers can struggle to locate their packages and frequently complain to customer support, Meher said. By automating this process for small businesses, Meher said Wonderment’s platform improves customer relations.
“This ultimately helps them keep their customers for the long term and helps them build better relationships because they’re building trust with the consumer,” Meher said.
Wonderment’s new funds will be used to grow its current six-person team across all major functions, including engineering, product sales, support, and marketing. Funds will also be put toward improving its platform.
“I think there’s a lot more on the table in terms of delivering better purchase confidence at scale to really impact ultimately the bottom line of a brand,” Meher said.
