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BFD Expert Voices - Retail Deals

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Pari Passu Venture Partners wants to seed the next wave of commerce tech startups.

Why it matters: Entrepreneurs, founders and accredited investors can invest alongside larger firms as retail tech funding slows.

What they're saying: PPVP typically targets early-stage companies at the seed stage, a universe that has expanded.

Raising a flat seed extension would've been seen as negative in the past, but now a flat or large seed round is becoming more normalized, managing partner Julia Gudish Krieger says.

How it works: PPVP's PariPassu investor marketplace app, similar to AngelList, connects e-commerce tech startups to seed investors.

Accredited tech investors can co-invest alongside some of the leading venture firms like Sequoia Capital, Upfront Ventures and Sierra Ventures.

"Our investors are some of the highest-profile leaders in e-commerce and technology. And so a $50K check from one of them can be tremendously more valuable than just a few institutions filling up a whole round," Krieger says.

Zoom in: PPVP expects to invest in one to two deals a month, with typical check sizes ranging between $650,000 and $1 million, Krieger says. 

Across the 19 companies it has invested in so far, those check sizes have ranged from $100,000 to $3 million.

Fintech startup Ampla, human-like customer support agent Siena AI, e-commerce customer experience platform Gorgias, and cross-border trade facilitator OpenBorder have received backing from PPVP's network of investors.

Context: The partners make the decisions on where to invest, and are veteran e-commerce operators themselves.

Krieger was an investor at Insight Partners and Kyle Widrick and Dylan Whitman co-founded BVA Commerce, one of the largest agency partners of Shopify (which was acquired by Accenture).

The bottom line: Krieger says many founders gravitate toward PPVP because of its operational chops, alongside the financial backing it provides.

"We get approached fairly often for secondary to try to buy out our positions, and it's nice to be able to see that external validation," Krieger says.

"It's also nice to be able to say, 'No, we're in it for the longer ride.'"

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to note that it is PPVP's PariPassu app, not PPVP itself, that serves as an investor marketplace.

PPVP aims to seed early-stage commerce tech companies

The firm's investors include operating executives.

Illustration of a hand watering a tree in a pot with money for leaves

Venture capital funding

Pari Passu Venture Partners wants to seed the next wave of commerce tech startups.Why it matters: Entrepreneurs, founders and accredited investors can invest alongside larger firms as <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="retail tech funding" data-vars-click-url="https://www.cbinsights.com/research/retail-tech-trends-2023/" data-vars-content-id="de6531d8-c599-4135-b3cc-51cfd1ff4f2d" data-vars-headline="PPVP aims to seed early-stage commerce tech companies" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.cbinsights.com/research/retail-tech-trends-2023/" target="_blank">retail tech funding</a> slows.

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PPVP aims to seed early-stage commerce tech companies

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