LightSpeed, a Canadian software company that promises to help retailers revolutionize in-store shopping, has raised $30 million in Series A funding from Accel Partners, a global investment firm.
The company's software, which nearly 10,000 retailers in more than 30 countries use, turns Mac computers, iPads, and iPhones into cutting edge sales and retail management tools — bringing the access, value and speed of online shopping into the store environment, CEO, Dax Dasilva, said in a company press release.
"We see an enormous global market for LightSpeed," Dasilva said. "To-date, our retail customers have ranged from boutiques to leading-edge brands that already engage today's technologically advanced consumer. With our new capital resources and partners at Accel, we will further enhance our products and solutions that help virtually any store chain, anywhere in the world, to move ahead of the curve in the digital retail revolution and embrace the needs of today's shoppers."
LightSpeed is helping retailers to create in-store experiences exciting enough to compete against e-commerce, said Accel partner Ryan Sweeney, who will join the company's board.
"LightSpeed offers the only solution we've seen that allows any retailer to create an Apple-like in-store experience, which draws people away from the computer and into the store."
Over the last 5 years, LightSpeed has grown revenue approximately 2,000 percent, earning the title of Quebec's fastest growing company in 2011. LightSpeed's success to-date has come without external funding, as Dasilva and team have bootstrapped the company, according to the release.
For Accel, the investment marks a growing theme of investing in best-of-breed technology companies that bring Apple into the enterprise, Sweeney said.
"We are constantly searching for innovative companies that capitalize on the superior user experience of Apple's suite of products to deliver outperformance in the enterprise. LightSpeed and Dax have proven that the power of Apple's intuitive products combined with disruptive technology can spark growth in retail," he said. "We believe that bringing the Apple-store experience to retailers has the power to reinvigorate the retail landscape."
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