An app developer ties its future with Shopify

An ecommerce app developer is betting its future on developing apps for ecommerce brands and merchants that use the Shopify ecommerce platform. And investors seem to like what they see

Staytuned, a global software company that acquires and builds ecommerce applications with a core focus on Shopify, recently raised $34 million in funding from a large group of investors.

The investors include:

• TenOneTen
• Rembrandt VC
• Hawke Ventures
• DragonX
• FJ Labs
• Interlace
• Riverpark Ventures
• Comma Capital
• Kotti Capital
• Alumni Ventures Group
• Jason Finger

Angel investors also participated in the new equity round. Tacora Capital led the debt funding. Previous investment rounds included Bowery Capital, WTI, Social Leverage, and others.

Staytuned was co-founded by Serge Kassardjian and Randy Jimenez, a pair of entrepreneurs with previous stints working for Google and other technology companies. To date, it has raised more than $46 million in funding.

New York-based Staytuned provides a suite of software tools for managing online stores. The startup focuses on websites that run on Shopify Inc.’s namesake ecommerce platform. Shopify’s platform processed $61 billion worth of purchases last quarter, according to Silicon Angle. Millions of merchants worldwide use Shopify’s platform.

Staytuned has assembled its software suite through a combination of in-house product development and acquisitions. The eight tools in the suite cover a variety of use cases. Some focus on automating general store management tasks, while others cater to companies in specific markets such as the events industry, according to Silicon Angle.

Four of the eight tools focus on helping online retailers issue discounts to customers. One application, Moonship, uses machine learning to target website visitors with personalized discount offers. Another tool called ADG enables retailers to mark down the price of products when a customer is about to complete a purchase, says Silicon Angel.

“We hope to become the Salesforce suite for ecommerce stores — an end-to-end suite to scale a fast-growing brand seamlessly within the Shopify ecosystem and beyond, where brands want to grow their presence and revenue,” Kassardjian says.

Staytuned will use the latest round of funding to make more acquisitions and for product development. To date, the company has made seven acquisitions. In November, the company acquired Tabarnapp, a developer of Shopify apps for product discounts, upselling, and cross-selling.

To date, Staytuned also says it has more than 20,000 merchants using its various apps.

“This new funding enables us to acquire bigger apps, hire amazing talent, and scale faster than ever to become the foremost tech stack in the Shopify ecosystem,” says Jimenez.