Plobal Apps, a no-code mobile app platform for e-commerce stores, has raised $8.5 million, led by Elevation Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners. Elevation and Bessemer also co-led the funding round in 2021, bringing the total capital raised by Plobal Apps to $14 million in the last 6 months.
Plobal Apps enables D2C brands to rapidly build and launch their mobile apps, drive installs, engage customers and scale revenues. With 73% of all e-commerce transactions made via a mobile device, shopping experiences are being designed for the mobile-first customer. Within mobile commerce, mobile apps offer better personalization for customers, and communication can be tailored based on user interests, location, usage, and behavior. This leads to a higher conversion rate, AOV, and lifetime value of the customer.
One of the largest app building platforms in the Shopify ecosystem, Plobal Apps help merchants drive up to 5X higher conversion rates as compared to mobile web.
The company’s mission is to democratize mobile commerce tech to create a level playing field for e-commerce brands globally.
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For most brands, building apps was expensive, needed expertise and was a time consuming affair. With DIY apps, Plobal Apps helped solve that problem for merchants. A bigger problem was that after the app was built, these merchants had no idea how to drive installs and generate revenue.
Plobal Apps focuses on what happens after the mobile app is built, and aims to make the mobile app the best performing sales channel for a merchant.
“We’ve come a long way in our journey. Brands have now started realizing the importance of an owned marketing channel. For many of these D2C brands, personalization and retargeting have become challenging with the increase in privacy policies, regulations and third-party data restrictions. With rising acquisition costs and more focus on retention, brands are doubling down on owned platforms like email, SMS and mobile apps to reach their customers and truly own their audience. Push Notifications on mobile apps outperform email and SMS and have better results on conversion, deliverability and engagement,” said Atul Poharkar, Founder, Plobal Apps.
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Akarsh Shrivastava, Principal, Elevation Capital said, “At Elevation, we have always been excited by the potential D2C brands hold. However, with ever increasing digital marketing costs, increasingly difficult customer targeting and marketing, brands need to own and monetize these customers better. Recent privacy related changes have only made these tailwinds stronger. Plobal’s easy to build platform, with ready marketing playbooks, helps brands build and leverage state of the art consumer facing apps, allowing them to improve their retention, repeat purchases and customer lifetime values significantly. We are super excited to partner with Atul and the Plobal team.”
Plobal Apps is working closely with mid-market and Enterprise Shopify customers, with an emphasis on revenue generation for the merchants. With popular and fast-growing brands such as Steve Madden, Goose Creek, Matt & Nat, Koovs, and Rare Rabbit as customers, Plobal understands how to drive successful conversions from mobile apps. The company is processing millions in app GMV every month for its merchants from businesses across the board.
Anant Puri, Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners, said, “At Bessemer, we believe that the future of e-commerce is apps as they allow for better customer engagement as well as the ability to explore more forms of commerce like live streaming and influencer based selling. Building an app is just the first step and that is why we are excited to partner with Atul and the entire Plobal Apps team; not only do they help build mobile apps for their customers in minutes, they also help them drive adoption, engagement, and revenue through the app.”
With a reach of almost 2.5 million Shopify merchants, Plobal is looking at a massive market opportunity. The fresh capital from this round will be directed towards building a larger presence in North America, tech innovation and launching new products.
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