Commerce

We are former founders and operators at leading commerce and marketing-tech companies whose focus at BCV is entirely on these ecosystems.

Bain Capital’s unique advantages in commerce and marketing are unmatched — and our venture investments in commerce tech date back to the 2000s. For Scott’s former company, ProfitLogic, access to Bain Capital’s retail and brand portfolio (including iconic companies like Canada Goose, Michaels Stores, Guitar Center, Cotopaxi and Bugaboo) was a major part of how BCV became his largest investor, and also why he chose to join the BCV team after selling ProfitLogic to Oracle. Christina joined BCV after leading product teams at Affirm and GoFundMe, operating at the intersection of commerce and fintech.

From commerce enablement companies that helped major retailers and brands become more data-driven and omnichannel-enabled (such as ProfitLogic, Kiva Systems, Tell Apart, Bloomreach, HookLogic and Persado), to companies that foresaw and facilitated the e-commerce revolution with widespread adoption of mobile usage and cloud computing, we have been a part of every foundational shift in how the world shops and sells over the last two decades. Whether it’s personalized B2C communications from Attentive, infrastructure for 3P marketplaces with Mirakl, highly efficient e-commerce logistics with ShipBob or first-party data infrastructure with mParticle, BCV continues to partner with innovators to build the foundation for modern commerce operations.

We have also invested in novel retail concepts and marketplaces — in effect, next-gen retailers, not brands. We have been involved since the earliest days of company formation with market-leading commerce innovators across industries like Rent the Runway, Jet.com, Material Bank, Ankorstore and Wonder. Through the creative deployment of modern technology and data infrastructure, each of the companies has delivered a powerful new value proposition to consumers while establishing a massive moat.

We don’t care about stage. Our objective is to partner with great founders who we can help to build scalable, defensible, highly profitable businesses. We were the first check into Rent the Runway, Persado and Bloomreach, led the Series A in Attentive and led growth rounds at Mirakl, Material Bank and Ankorstore. Across our portfolio we are known for our “roll up our sleeves” approach, whether to help find and close a key exec, facilitate the right C-level customer introductions, support a new financing or think through how to handle the inevitable ups and downs of company building.  We have lived the battles as founders, operators and board members from the earliest stages to scale and exit. We aim to be your first phone call, the relationship you know you can count on, day or night, at each stage of growth.

Focus Areas

Personalization - Machine Learning / AI

We work closely with predictive technologies and personalized marketing tools such as Persado, Attentive, Bloomreach and mParticle, which arm both incumbents and new entrants with cloud-based, machine learning-centric, digital tools to understand, find and market to customers — and increase retention through optimized, personalized, authentic customer experiences.

First-Party Data Aggregation and Next-Gen Marketing Measurement

Traditional advertising channels (i.e., Facebook and Google) are oversaturated and changing privacy regulation has impacted first-party data collection for all consumer-oriented organizations. To remain successful, merchants must be able to capture more consumer data in their daily user flow across social and the web, or create new shoppable experiences that maximize attribution. It is also critical to empower merchants with better tools that help them understand the performance of every campaign (both granularly and at a high level), allowing them to grow their businesses more effectively through more accurate data-driven decisions.

Generative AI Transforming Consumer Experiences

Generative AI will fundamentally drive a new wave of consumer shopping experiences. We continue to look for solutions that will streamline content creation, personalize product search and recommendations, respond to and ingest customer feedback at scale, and better predict supply chain disruptions that lead to better inventory forecasting, and in turn more customer satisfaction.

Commerce Meets Fintech

Increasingly we see financial services embedded within e-commerce flows to optimize checkout experiences for consumers and create profitable new revenue streams for merchants (i.e., BNPL, wallets, loyalty, next-gen PLCC). Arming brands with better financing and accounting integrations contributes to more growth. We invested in Recharge to solve subscription commerce pain points for brands and Catch to build a next-gen closed-loop payment network to enhance consumer loyalty.

 

Rearchitecting Manufacturing and Supply Chain Operations

Growing supply chain complexity has forced merchants to make new decisions that create a more accurate picture of their operations to increase profits. As a result, we continue to look for solutions that can optimize the entire operations process – from the initial design process, to sourcing/manufacturing, to better inventory management in the warehouse and in store.

Commerce 4.0

What’s next?  You tell us!  We’re here to learn, share ideas and leverage our broad reach and depth of domain connectivity to support you in realizing your vision. Drop us a line. We love to talk shop.

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Domain Insights Commerce

Commerce Domain Experts

Commerce Portfolio

Company
About
Partner
Invested
Domain
Investment Stage

Empowering brands and agencies worldwide to manage enterprise-level, omnichannel digital campaigns.

Invested 2014
Commerce
Growth