FinSight Ventures Announces Series A Round Funding for Merkata Smart POS: Investment in Company Focusing on Retail Business Solutions and Supply-chain Processes
PALO ALTO, Calif. (PRWEB) December 05, 2017 -- FinSight Ventures leads investment round in Merkata Smart POS, which focuses on small retail business solutions optimizing supply chain and in-store inventory processes.
Merkata was founded in 2015 in Ekaterinburg, Russia and initially focused on retail tech-enabled regulatory compliance for smaller merchants in the local market. For two years, the company successfully developed its offering into a complete solution and platform that can help merchants automate the entire workflow of their store and integrate with their suppliers. Merkata Smart POS automates several key processes for retailers, including procurement, sales tracking and monitoring, and regulatory compliance with recent regulation for the retail industry. Additionally, the company provides a tech platform for suppliers and merchants to manage and replenish inventory.
Microsoft awarded Merkata’s solution an “Application Developer of the Year” prize for its region in a recent worldwide partner conference. The company is part of the Skolkovo Innovation Center in Moscow, and earlier this year, it completed a financing round with Sverdlovsk Region Innovation Fund.
“The vendor-managed inventory solution that is being developed by the Merkata team is an invaluable platform supporting the collaboration between merchants, suppliers and distributors,” said Alexey Garyunov, co-founder and Managing Partner of FinSight Ventures. “It is becoming a standard that will transform traditional smaller retailers and increase financial and operational transparency for these local businesses. Merkata POS makes it possible to increase group buying power for small businesses and suppliers as well as build a virtual next-generation retail chain with more efficient processes, document-flow and supply chain. Capitalizing on this opportunity and strategy are key reasons for our interest in investing in this funding round.”
Alexander Prokhorov, co-founder and Managing Partner of FinSight Ventures, says, “We see attractive investment opportunities in Eastern Europe and other emerging markets, where many sectors are experiencing high growth and digital transformation. These developments are unfolding in this region as they are in developed economies but often at faster speeds and with valuations and deal terms that are more reasonable than in developed markets.”
Yury Kushpel, CEO and co-founder of Merkata, said, “The main objective for Merkata is to enable small businesses and suppliers with technology solutions that help improve their key operating metrics, including availability of goods on store shelves, which directly impact sales and reduces excess inventory levels throughout the entire supply chain. This sales data coupled with automatic procurement can allow small merchants to achieve the high level of efficiencies that were previously possible only for large chains.”
The funding will help the company expand its client support, sales and marketing efforts. Anton Elikov, co-founder and Merkata’s Head of Business Development said: “Quality of service for our customers is the foundation of our business. All of our business processes are focused on reducing retail supply-chain friction. Our smart cloud-based POS solution creates real value for merchants and employees by bringing invaluable time-saving tools to the business. We are proud of the variety of partners we have, which includes banks, manufacturers, franchisees, distributors and retail chains.”
The terms of the round were not announced, but the founders remain majority owners of the business. Mr. Garyunov added, “We studied various POS-focused start-ups in the local region and believe that Merkata has a very strong and experienced team utilizing the right strategy. They have a clear vision and understanding of the industry and its trends. Importantly, Merkata addresses specific supply-chain issues in bringing valuable economic benefits to both the merchant and the supplier. We see similar opportunities in other markets and believe Merkata has strong potential for international expansion. Consumer goods operate in similar ways in many markets and have similar pain points.”
About Merkata Smart POS
Merkata was founded in 2015 by Yury Kushpel, Anton Elikov, Andrey Dolinin, Alexander Fydorov and Roman Moiseenko. All founders have extensive backgrounds in retail and supply-chain process automation. They have experience managing large projects in the development and implementation of EDI (electronic data interchange) and front office systems that are being used throughout Russia. Merkata is a technology solution that offers compliance with recent regulations in Russia driving adoption of cloud-based POS systems, business management systems and full POS solutions, including remote and on-site client support.
For press contacts: Anton Elikov aelikov(at)merkata(dot)ru +7 922-1409058
About FinSight Ventures (http://www.FinSightvc.com)
FinSight is a global venture capital firm focused on FinTech and enterprise IT. This focus includes companies addressing solutions in the banking, finance, insurance and payments sectors, along with enterprise software companies driving digital transformation in and around these segments. FinSight works with innovative and ambitious FinTech and enterprise software start-ups that are driving or capitalizing on changes in these sectors. FinSight's team, experience and extensive financial service partnership networks allow the firm to significantly help entrepreneurs in FinTech sectors. Find out more about FinSight on its website and follow the firm on Twitter here.
For press contacts: Alexander Prokhorov ap(at)finsightvc(dot)com
Alexander Prokhorov, [email protected], http://www.finsightvc.com, +1 (415) 964-7074, [email protected]
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