In the dynamic world of e-commerce, businesses need to maintain a competitive edge through technological advancements.
The traditional approach to developing complex software for online stores has proven to be arduous, time-intensive, and financially burdensome. Moreover, such software’s continuous upkeep and management often pose significant challenges.
Turkish startup Rierino wants to bring about a revolutionary change in e-commerce.
With the hurdles in e-commerce clear, the founders of Rierino set out to create a platform that would make customisations and advanced development more accessible to medium-to-large enterprises.
Doing so has not only opened new avenues for businesses to thrive in the digital market but plays a pivotal role in transforming the e-commerce landscape.
The Inception of Rierino
Rierino was born out of a deep understanding of the challenges faced by fast-paced e-commerce organisations.
“We saw that continuous change was difficult and slow even with modern tech stacks due to increased complexity and capacity constraints. Most of the time, access to intelligence was also limited because of siloed data platforms and fragmented third-party add-ons,” says Mine Ozmen, Co-founder of Rierino.
Based out of Istanbul, Rierino was created as a technology platform that easily shapeshifts to anticipate and adapt to changing business needs.
The name Rierino (pronounced rye-ree-noe) is an acronym derived from the phrase “right here right now,” which, the founders believe, captures the essence of digital enterprises.
“It is also inspired by the power, resilience, and speed of rhinos and their fearless ability in establishing new territories and facing competition head-on,” shares Ozmen.
The founders and their expertise
The core team at Rierino consists of Utku Sarioz as the CEO (Sales & Strategy), Berkin Ozmen as the CTO, and Mine Ozmen as the CMO (Marketing & Product Design).
Each founder brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table.
Sarioz is a seasoned entrepreneur and strategic advisor with a track record of leading digital transformation engagements across multiple countries.
A technology thinker and practitioner, Berkin Ozmen has built solutions for numerous high-tech clients.
Mine Ozmen is a data-driven marketing strategist with a strong UI/UX design, product and content management background.
The founding team of Rierino has a history of working together for almost 20 years in various entrepreneurial and managerial settings.
Their previous consulting venture grew to include three offices across 13 countries before being acquired by a Big Four company.
This long-standing collaboration has enabled them to develop a deep understanding of each other’s strengths and overcome challenges together, ultimately leading to the creation of Rierino.
What does Rierino solve?
One of the critical challenges medium-to-large enterprises face is the limitations of standard packaged solutions.
While these solutions are easy to set up and use, they provide limited control over core technology, making customisation for unique business models or features difficult.
Rierino addresses these challenges by offering rapid customisation capabilities.
The smart low-code microservice development platform from Rierino allows businesses to have total control and customisation over their technology stack, enabling them to fit the platform capabilities into their business models instead of the other way around.
What makes Rierino stand out?
Rierino stands apart from its competitors for its optimal combination of adaptive technologies – composable commerce, embedded intelligence, and low-code/no-code (LCNC) capabilities.
The composable structure of the platform turns it into a plug-and-play suite, allowing for easy integration and customisation.
The embedded intelligence provides smart automation for all business flows, streamlining operations and improving efficiency.
The low-code/no-code (LCNC) interface makes the platform more accessible to non-technical users, empowering marketers, category managers, and data scientists to leverage the platform’s capabilities.
By offering highly adaptive and easily accessible technologies, Rierino enables businesses to anticipate and adapt to changing market needs effectively.
Accelerating disruption with funding
Rierino recently raised $1.25M (approximately €1.1M) in seed funding from the Future Impact Fund, which brings together Tacirler Portfoy and Vestel Ventures.
On this partnership, Utku Sarioz reveals, “In addition to the founding team’s experience, our investors view Rierino’s technology as unique, intuitive, and efficient with a strong potential in the fast-growing low-code/no-code space.”
The new funding will help Rierino accelerate product innovation (such as self-designing UIs with generative AI), grow the team (set up our European offices), expand partnerships (sales & implementation) and integrations (a larger pre-built connector library to prioritised ERP, payment, and communication solutions).
The company also plans to raise additional funds in 18-24 months.
“Depending on our momentum and market reach, this will be in the form of a bridge fund or Series A as equity capital from a global VC/CVC. We’ve already had early discussions with a few prominent VCs that expressed interest in our future rounds,” adds Utku Sarioz.
European expansion with a focus on Benelux
With its seed funding, Rierino is setting its focus on expansion and its first target market is Europe. In Europe, the Turkish startup is focusing primarily on the Benelux region.
“This decision is influenced by the region’s stable economy, strong focus on e-commerce and digital innovation, and steady growth potential,” adds Utku Sarioz.
The Benelux region also presents complex e-commerce operations across multiple countries, requiring flexibility regarding country-based rules, languages, and currencies.
Rierino’s platform is well-suited to address these challenges and provide tailored solutions to businesses in the region, says Utku Sarioz.
Alongside expansion, the startup also plans to double its current team of around ten people by the end of this year.
“In Europe, our hiring focus will be on the sales team members, primarily in the Benelux market where we are considering opening an office,” says Utku Sarioz.
Building for medium and large-sized enterprises
To establish a strong presence in the European market, Rierino has implemented several key strategies, including building channel partnerships.
“We are in talks with several system integrators and implementation agencies that have a similar vision and will be able to effectively take our solution to the market,” says Berkin Ozmen.
“We will also expand our core “SWAT” team with key local resources from Europe to support our growing client and partner base. We will participate in leading industry events and tradeshows and host our own for a more personal engagement with key decision-makers,” he adds.
According to Berkin Ozmen, Rierino’s target audience within the European market, particularly in the Benelux region, consists of medium to large-sized enterprises with a strong vision for differentiation through technology and customer experience.
He says there are three main groups they typically see in this audience, which also apply to the region:
- Top-tier e-commerce companies with unique challenges
- Brand retailers and e-commerce companies looking to re-platform
- Ambitious e-commerce startups.
Compliance and Data Privacy
Rierino recognises the importance of compliance with relevant regulations and data privacy laws in Europe. The platform’s limitless flexibility enables businesses to adapt and comply with country and company-specific rules.
“For example, it is possible to ensure that personal data never leaves the EU (or even the company’s own data centres) thanks to our cloud-agnostic solution deployment capabilities,” explains Berkin Ozmen.
He adds, “We give our clients 100 per cent ownership of their customer data; they can decide where and how that data is stored, with 100 per cent traceability of when and by whom that data is accessed.”
As it expands into Europe and prepares a new chapter, Rierino is making sure that data compliance and privacy is not an afterthought. It has built its system with nativity to rules and regulations every step of the way.
“Our platform also facilitates setting up business rules and flows in line with country regulations and company rules, such as setting-up customer notifications to ensure that the right contractual information is communicated within the timelines or configuring delivery and VAT fees as required,” adds Berkin Ozmen.
Revenue and future growth
Rierino primarily generates revenue through enterprise software licensing.
“We have a fixed annual licence fee, which is independent of the number of users or volume of transactions happening through our platform – giving our clients better predictability and ease of mind that our fees will not skyrocket when they scale their operations,” Mine Ozmen tells Silicon Canals.
Notably, the licence fee is determined based on the type and number of modules deployed with the platform.
Additionally, Rierino offers an end-to-end PaaS model for select clients, further expanding its monetisation strategy.
After Europe, Rierino aims to expand its LCNC technology stack to the UK, the US, and even Asia.
For Rierino, the goal is simple. It envisions itself as a global digital transformation platform, expanding geographically, broadening its business model, and venturing beyond e-commerce and it has all the ingredients in place to succeed.
01
Spreadsheets to software: How technology changed the investment landscape and supports alternative investing