E-commerce businesses don’t often build big companies: they might be big in revenue, but remain lean in headcount. However, 8fig believes these companies should still be able to get the expertise of, say, a chief financial officer, but in a way that works for their business.
When Yaron Shapira, Assaf Dagan and Roei Yellin started 8fig in 2020, the company, based out of both Austin and Israel, was focused on providing lending and supply chain management tools to e-commerce businesses struggling to manage their cash flow as they grow their businesses.
However, after raising $50 million in 2021, CEO Shapira said e-commerce began shifting from growth to profitability approaches as the rising cost of customer acquisition and changes in privacy were changing unit economics.
Now 8fig is building out a “C-suite” for e-commerce companies, CEO Shapira told TechCrunch. AI CFO is the first new product, providing cash flow planning. When the company is still small, planning is easier, but when the business is growing significantly and becoming more complex, that is where Shapira said companies miss out on cash flow management.
“Usually these kinds of companies will never have a CFO, someone who’s actually doing the financials and all the calculations, instead using external accountants to help them,” Shapira said. “This means that there’s a huge gap in their planning.”
8fig co-founders, from left, Yaron Shapira, Roei Yellin, and Assaf Dagan. Image Credits: Look Photography
AI CFO offers a self-serve web application where companies can do their cash flow planning automatically, and then if they need it, can get business continuity planning from 8fig.
Since its inception three years ago, 8fig has delivered over $500 million in funding to online sellers. In 2022, it grew its customer base and annual revenue by 900% and 800%, respectively. During that same time period, the company also tripled its employee headcount and released both a mobile app version and freight management and payment functionality.
Now the company is flush with $140 million in new funding that closed in April, $40 million in Series B equity and $100 million in a credit facility, to work on a full AI executive suite that will include AI chief marketing officer and AI chief operating officer features later this year.
The funding was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies with participation from existing investors Battery Ventures, LocalGlobe, Hetz, the Jesselson family and Silicon Valley Bank, which is now a division of First Citizens Bank. Shapira said this was an “up” round in terms of valuation and brings 8fig’s total funding to $196.5 million.
“In these turbulent times, technology can help e-commerce businesses with their planning, so you will see a lot of effort on that from us,” Shapira said. “Helping our clients with only AI CFO is good, but not perfect. If we’re able to help them in their marketing and logistics, this can be super important. We are going to invest in these areas in order to help our clients to do great work themselves and to be successful in the next year and the next two years, which is the future that we are looking at.”
