Shopware Nets $100M To Grow Digital Commerce, More News

Shopware, a digital commerce software solutions provider, has announced it has raised $100 million in growth capital from global investment firm, Carlyle, and PayPal, a global payments and commerce platform.

Founders Sebastian and Stefan Hamann will retain a significant majority stake in the business and remain co-CEOs of the company. Carlyle and PayPal’s growth capital will help drive Shopware’s international expansion and the development of new products, according to company officials.

Headquartered in Schöppingen, Germany, Shopware offers an omnichannel digital commerce platform that is API-first and uses an open-source architecture. It focuses on mid-market merchants but also serves multinational companies including Philips, Jägermeister and Aston Martin.

Carlyle has digital commerce market experience and supports technology companies. It will help Shopware drive international growth, expand its product suite and execute its go-to-market strategies. 

“This funding will help us supercharge our international growth – enabling Shopware to capture the significant opportunities ahead of us,” Stefan Hamann, co-CEO of Shopware, said in a press release.

Michael Wand, managing director and co-head of CETP, will join Shopware’s board of directors together with CETP’s Constantin Boye, director.

In other customer experience and digital marketing software news…

AppDirect Acquires Canadian Cloud Technology Provider, ITCloud.ca

AppDirect, a subscription commerce platform, has announced that it has acquired ITCloud.ca, a cloud technology provider. With this acquisition, AppDirect expands the geographical footprint of its AppSmart business in Canada. It also gains full end-to-end Microsoft capabilities. By joining AppDirect, ITCloud.ca will be able to scale its existing business and expand the portfolio of solutions it offers by accessing more than 600 SaaS technology and telecommunications vendors in the AppSmart catalog.

ITCloud.ca was founded in 2005 as an online backup and recovery company. It now includes a portfolio of cloud solutions for more than 1,200 technology partners that serve business customers across Canada. ITCloud.ca’s digital partner portal will now combine with the AppSmart Marketplace, which provides partners access to a portfolio of technology, business solutions and management tools. Partners can also extend AppSmart’s identity management, application management and data visualization tools directly to their business customers.

The acquisition also combines ITCloud.ca’s Microsoft Azure and Business 365 experience with AppSmart’s Dynamics 365 capabilities.

“I’m thrilled to welcome ITCloud.ca to the AppDirect family, which will enable us to jointly enhance the opportunities and services ITCloud.ca delivers to its technology partners in Canada,” Renée Bergeron, Senior Vice President and General Manager for AppSmart, said in a press release. “I’m also thrilled that as part of the acquisition, we will be onboarding the phenomenal team that built ITCloud.ca into what it is today.”

AppDirect will onboard the existing leadership team of ITCloud.ca and enable the teams to offer additional solutions with over 1,000 products currently available from AppSmart.

Vurvey Introduces Reels 

Vurvey, which provides a co-creation platform, has announced the introduction of Vurvey Reels, a feature of its technology platform that compiles clips of video survey feedback from consumers into a highlight reel.

Vurvey Reels takes the best of consumer feedback via video surveys and builds a highlight reel, according to Chad Reynolds, founder and CEO of Vurvey. It enables you to create and share your favorite video clips of consumer feedback with your team.

Once all video responses are selected, users can edit together their Vurvey Reel by adjusting the start and stop time to only include the parts of responses they want to feature. Vurvey Reels are then processed and published and can be securely shared. Vurvey Reels offers an option to create password protection for private viewing, too. 

Vurvey’s video surveys, called Vurveys, allow companies to conduct virtual focus groups by utilizing video questions for consumers. Vurvey provides the tools to open up the creation process and bring consumer insights into the initial research and discovery process. It adds to support during concept feedback, generates new ideas and refines the go-to-market experience.

Vurvey’s platform also includes augmented reality, digital workrooms and QR codes for capturing consumer insights, running virtual focus groups and testing product concepts.

UserZoom Unveils ‘Live Interviews’

UserZoom, which provides experience insights management, has announced new automation capabilities. Company officials said this will make the process to collect user feedback and deliver customer insights for digital experiences more efficient.

With UserZoom Live Interviews, product leaders can now use one platform to recruit study participants, schedule sessions, collaborate virtually, synthesize findings and share research results with their organization. 

With Live Interviews, companies can:

• Recruit: Find research participants directly from the UserZoom platform.
• Schedule: Automate session scheduling, allowing research teams to fill studies.
• Interview: Study participants get access to purpose-built experience with tech check, virtual waiting room, direct 1:1 chat with a moderator and no visible observers.
• Collaboration: Note-takers + observers can collaborate and debrief from a secure, virtual incognito observation room.
• Analyze: Includes searchable automated transcripts, synced playback and time-stamped notes.
• Report and share: Use video clips, highlights and quotes to create narratives with research insights.