French startup Stockly raises a $12 million (€12 million) Series A round from Eurazeo, Daphni and several business angels. The company bundles the inventory of several e-commerce websites. When a retailer runs out of stock on a popular item, they can still accept the order and process the order through another retailer’s inventory.
This startup is a network game. As Stockly grows, the product becomes more interesting as there are more partner stores on the platform. Some of Stockly’s customers are Galeries Lafayette, Jonak, Go Sport and Decathlon.
If there are multiple suppliers who can fulfill an order, Stockly automatically chooses a retailer based on various criteria, such as price, distance and a quality score. Stockly also tells its partners to use neutral packaging so that everything remains transparent for the end customer.
The main technical challenge is that Stockly needs to sync millions of items at any given time. It integrates with existing e-commerce product feeds and should display Stockly’s information in real time.
For example, Stockly cannot say that it can find a specific product at a specific price if there is some delay and no one actually has this product in its stock anymore. But if it works as expected, it’s easy to sell because it improves the user experience and generates some revenue for everyone along the way – the ecommerce retailer, the product supplier, and Stockly.
With today’s funding round, the company aims to reach 50 employees and attract more retailers. Eurazeo and Daphni had already invested in Stockly last year, so they are both doubling their investment.
