A Cincinnati venture-backed startup that enables brands selling on Amazon to optimize their presence and profitability has been acquired by a Houston-based company.
Cart.com, which offers unified commerce and logistics offerings to businesses and public sector agencies, announced its acquisition of Amify, which bills itself as a turnkey “Amazon-as-a-service” provider. The company’s provides platform management, advertising, creative content, supply chain strategy and analytics.
Terms of the deal, announced April 2, were not disclosed, but Cart.com filed a Form D with the Securities and Exchange Commission March 27 for $17 million in equity related to the transaction. The company could not comment further on the filing but told Cincy Inno sister publication Houston Inno it was related to a stock component of the deal.
Amify’s entire workforce, including founder Ethan McAfee, will join Cart.com.
Amify CEO Chris Mehrabi will lead Cart.com’s professional services business as chief delivery officer, reporting to Cart.com founder and CEO Omair Tariq. Mehrabi, who brings 20 years of experience in building and scaling high-growth businesses, will be responsible for delivery of the company’s growth marketing, customer engagement, marketplace services and store optimization products. Amify’s chief operating officer, Christine McCambridge, will join Cart.com as vice president of marketplace services operations.
“I’m happy to welcome the entire Amify team to Cart.com and have industry veterans Chris Mehrabi and Christine McCambridge join our leadership team,” Tariq said in a news release. “Amify has been widely recognized for their expertise and technology, and we’re excited to leverage their experience to help our customers maximize their potential across channels.”
Amify currently supports more than 50 global brands, including the Art of Shaving, Dr Squatch and Hanz De Fuko, and has managed about $1 billion in gross merchandise value since it was founded in 2011. In May 2023, the company closed a $10 million Series B led by Houston’s Mercury Fund, locally based CincyTech and SaaS Ventures out of Washington, D.C., along with participation from several undisclosed angel investors.
Amify, founded in Alexandria, Va., opened an “HQ2” in Cincinnati in 2019. It’s since flagged the region as its primary home base with headquarters space at Longworth Hall downtown.
