Paris-based software company Polar Analytics announced that it has secured $9M (€8.1M) in a Series A funding round led by global B2B SaaS investor Point Nine.
This round also saw contributions from Polar Analytics’ current investors Frst, angel investors, and some of its customers.
The company says the funding will be used to expand the platform’s integrations, support Shopify brands in transitioning to omnichannel commerce and help brands leverage first-party data in the cookie-less world of iOS 14.
Polar Analytics also plans to use the funding to hire world-class engineers and product designers to join its team. The company has 30 team members but aims to double that number to 60 within 18 months.
“We are excited to support Polar Analytics in their mission as they build a new software category: Vertical Data Platforms,” Point Nine partner Christoph Janz says.
According to Janz, Polar Analytics is dedicated to helping emerging brands navigate the constantly evolving eCommerce landscape and become the future leaders of the retail industry. He commended the company for its impressive efforts in achieving this goal.
Polar Analytics’ CEO David Dokes says the company aspires to be “the ultimate decision engine for retail brands”. He also explains that Polar Analytics wants “fast-growing brands to scale seamlessly within the Shopify ecosystem and beyond”.
About Polar Analytics
Polar Analytics was founded by Dokes and Charbel Seif in 2020. Before their roles at Polar Analytics, Dokes was the head of Turo’s growth team, while Seif was a data scientist at Airbnb.
Polar Analytics now supports over 2,200 brands, including the Frankie Shop, Polène, Manière de Voir, and Albion Fit. These brands have a yearly gross merchandise volume of over $1M (€904K).
According to Dokes, Polar Analytics has a business metrics layer. He calls it “a huge dictionary of all of the metrics and dimensions of e-commerce”.
This layer assigns a “knowledge worker” to each brand. It consolidates data from various sources and delivers a user-friendly business intelligence experience that does not require coding. Users have the freedom to inquire and analyse the data by posing questions.
The platform provides predefined dashboards for visualising crucial metrics like Customer Acquisition Cost, Lifetime Value and Retention Cohorts. Polar Analytics offers one-click data integration, analytics templates, custom reports and smart alerts. It has AI capabilities through “Ask Polar, your AI Analyst”, too.
Polar Analytics operates on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, where customers can subscribe to the platform monthly or yearly. Polar Analytics currently serves clients in more than 26 countries with its major markets being the United States, United Kingdom, France and Australia.
“We’re on Shopify, and our immediate goal is to dominate this platform,” Dokes says. He also underscores the importance of establishing “a very strong footprint and market share”.
According to Dokes, the company’s present goal is to onboard 10,000 merchants, a fivefold increase from its current number. “We also want to expand to every ecommerce CMS so we can be with brands wherever they sell,” he says.
01
From port to startup fort: How Lars Crama is ‘Making it Happen’ in Rotterdam