Raleigh e-commerce startup raises $13.6M seed round
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A Raleigh startup trying to help e-commerce companies navigate new AI-based tech and trends has raised $13.6 million in a seed round from investors.
Why it matters: The company, called ReFiBuy, is the latest startup from Scot Wingo, a serial entrepreneur and investor who is influential in the Triangle's startup scene.
- His previous ventures include the e-commerce company ChannelAdvisor, the on-demand car-care company Spiffy and the Triangle Tweener Fund.
Driving the news: The new round, led by NewRoad Capital Partners, will allow the company to expand its sales and marketing and engineering team, Wingo told Axios.
- The company has around 20 employees based in downtown Raleigh and will likely hire another 10 in the coming months.
What it does: Increasingly, e-commerce is being done through the lens of artificial intelligence. Humans are no longer the only ones searching for things to buy online, but also AI agents.
- Previously, companies focused on how to get their products to show up on search engines. But now the goal is also to surface in results of agentic shopping engines, which let AI autonomously research, compare and buy products.
- ReFiBuy builds tools that help brands make sure their products are considered by AI buying agents and also consults with companies to keep up with trends in the space.
By the numbers: Between 30% to 45% of U.S. consumers now use generative AI to research items to purchase, according to research from Bain, whether that is using ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Google search, which now also uses AI.
What they're saying: "We want to make sure every fact about your product is known by these [large language models], so that they can almost be an outsourced sales representative for you," Wingo told Axios.