Seattle-based retail technology startup Swiftly is the Puget Sound region's newest "unicorn," or company with a value of at least $1 billion.
Swiftly on Monday announced a $100 million Series C round, pushing its value to more than $1 billion. The round follows a previous $100 million round it raised in March.
"We're growing pretty aggressively," said Sean Turner, co-founder and chief technology officer at Swiftly. "We've gotten a tremendous amount of inbound interest. Our onboarding team is working as hard as they can trying to get as many stores launched as they can. This fundraise is really about allowing us to accelerate that."
According to Turner, the company has 120 full-time employees, and the bulk of the team is based in the Seattle area. Swiftly was using coworking spaces and looking for a more permanent home in March, and Turner said that effort is still underway. He added that the company is mostly looking downtown for its permanent office.
Swiftly, founded in 2018, offers brick-and-mortar grocers tools like loyalty programs and digital coupons to help drive more consumers into the store. The company, which sells its services to retailers rather than to consumers, also provides mobile checkout features and the ability for consumers to tally how much they are putting in their carts.
Turner said with inflation putting a pinch on consumers at grocery stores, Swiftly's services are becoming more popular. According to Turner, Swiftly is under contract with 22,500 stores across the U.S.
BRV Capital led the Series C round.
Multiple local companies have reached unicorn status so far in 2022, despite tougher venture capital conditions than last year. Seattle-based logistics company Flexe, for example, reached a value of more than $1 billion after raising $119 million in July. Seattle-based e-commerce startup Fabric, meanwhile, hit a value of about $1.5 billion after raising $140 million in February.
Although Swiftly is targeting grocery stores to start, Turner said retailers in industries like fashion, electronics and home goods could all benefit from the company's technology.
"This fundraise helps us to do more of that," Turner said.
