Qogita platform raises €80m in Series B funding

Founded in 2021, the company was created to make the process of sourcing wholesale products as easy as shopping on Amazon for e-commerce businesses within the global health and beauty market which is expected to be worth $785bn by 2025. It connects buyers, such as small and medium-sized retailers, and sellers, automatically finds the best prices and takes care of the whole purchase, including shipping and delivery.

The platform that aims to make wholesale procurement as simple as shopping on Amazon, is emerging from stealth and announcing it has raised €80 million in Series B funding led by Dawn Capital. The round, which included participation from previous investors including Series A lead Accel, and Seed co-leads LocalGlobe and Bessemer Venture Partners, brings the total raised by the company to €119 million. The funding will be used to invest in product development and category expansion. 

Qogita was born in 2021 out of the realisation of the complexities of trying to source wholesale products as a small e-commerce business. The time that retailers should focus on developing the store and growing the brand is instead often channelled into trying to build relationships with suppliers, negotiating to get the best deals and navigating the complex requirements of supply chain management. 

Connecting buyers and sellers 

The platform connects buyers and sellers, with a focus on the health and beauty sector. Buyers, usually small and medium-sized retailers, select their desired items, whilst Qogita finds the best available prices for each product, removing the need to compare deals and negotiate with different sellers. All customers need to do is check out and use the platform to keep track of orders, with Qogita taking care of the whole purchase, including shipping and delivery. 

Qogita’s algorithm-based allocation system matches buyers’ carts to the optimal mix of sellers, which is impossible to replicate manually, in terms of cost-savings, quality and speed of delivery. This is because, for the very same order, the optimal mix of sellers is different every minute, as prices, quantities and other parameters constantly change.

Solving procurement challenges for SMBs and sellers

It supports SMBs by ensuring they can access products and prices that are reserved only for large businesses, in turn enabling them to deliver value to consumers. A buy-now-pay-later feature enables buyers to access credit to pay for large orders upfront to rectify cash flow issues and support business growth.

Qogita’s sellers rely on the platform to maximise sales without the need for additional marketing costs required to reach differing customer cohorts, as well as eliminate efficiencies by connecting them with more buyers. Sellers can be paid instantly and securely for orders, whilst real-time feedback and analytics on stock and products support sellers to be more competitive.

Qogita’s solution to product procurement has seen it take a large slice out of the wholesale market, with only the US and Europe annual turnover expected to reach over $20 trillion. With buyers across 28 countries including Europe and the UK, and over 300 sellers, the team has grown to 75 people with employees in 12 countries. Earlier this year, Manolis Manassakis was appointed CEO to expand the platform. A former Director of EMEA Operations at Uber, Manassakis joined Qogita as COO in 2021 and has used his marketplace operations experience to drive the platform’s growth. 

Manolis Manassakis, CEO at Qogita, said: “In an era when everyone is used to ordering goods and services from a meal to a car ride at the push of a button, it is unacceptable how difficult wholesale buying can be for small and medium-sized businesses. Qogita was founded with a mission to transform procurement and provide the buying power and privileges of a global chain to every ambitious e-commerce platform or mid-sized store. Over the past two years, we’ve been quietly building in service of our buyer and seller customers, and have made great strides so far, but there is of course still more work to be done. We’re delighted to be working with an elite group of visionary investors to revolutionise wholesale procurement.”

Norman Fiore, General Partner at Dawn Capital, said: “It is remarkable how complex and completely opaque product procurement still is for small and medium-sized businesses targeting the $6 trillion e-commerce market. Qogita has built an all-in-one platform to address the entire wholesale procurement process - from product discovery to price optimisation - and we’re excited to see them power a future generation of e-commerce and retail businesses bringing innovation and choice to the consumer.”

Luca Bocchio, Partner at Accel, said: “The B2B wholesale market in Europe is huge, but also fragmented and complex. Currently, trade is done in an inefficient, undigitized way, and Qogita has the opportunity to become the digital enabler of the whole value chain, bringing more efficiency and transparency to a notoriously gray market. We look forward to partnering with the team on their journey ahead.”

George Henry, General Partner at LocalGlobe, said: “Qogita has built an extremely elegant solution, abstracting the complexity and opacity that small and medium retailers, both physical and digital, face in their procurement process. The magic of Qogita lies in their unique combination of their search algorithm on top of the marketplace building the most optimal cart for every order, allowing them to provide the only solution that truly works for buyers and sellers. We’re looking forward to continuing to be a part of their growth over the next few years”

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Other magazines that may be of interest - Supply Chain Magazine | Sustainability Magazine

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