Lebanese Shopify-like ecommerce management platform ‘Ecomz’ raises $4 million Series A

Beirut-based ecommerce management platform Ecomz has raised $4 million in a Series A round led by local VC Cedar Mundi Ventures, the startup announced yesterday. The round was also joined by iSME Lebanon, a government led funding initiative, and BLC Bank.

Founded in 2015 by Rudy Bekerejian and Amer Tabbara, Ecomz, just like Shopify, is an end-to-end ecommerce management platform that enables merchants to set up their mobile-optimized online stores and sell online. The merchants can set up their online stores using Ecomz’ store builder without having any technical skills.

The platform offers a variety of free and paid themes to choose from, for merchants. Ecomz also offers a range of built-in store management applications and different integrations including payments and shipping, enabling merchants to easily accept payments with international gateways and deliver their products all across the world. Ecomz’ personalized insights engine allows merchants to identify the weaknesses of their stores and optimize the performance.

The startup also enables merchants to grow in new markets through new sales and distribution channels including product sourcing and dropshipping, multi-vendor marketplace, and multi-channel integration.

Rudy Bekerejian, Co-Founder and CEO of Ecomz, commenting on the occasion, said, “Ecommerce is not only a game for pure players. Traditional retail can be largely enhanced with an online presence. Ecomz can ensure a smooth and seamless shift towards building a successful online business and aims to empower retailers throughout their business journey.”

Ecomz follows a freemium model, enabling merchants to set up their stores for free with up to 100 products but in this case, the merchants have to pay 5% (of the transaction) and $1.5 as transaction fee on every transaction. The cheapest paid subscription costs $24 per month and allows merchants to add up to 500 products to their store and doesn’t have a transaction fee.

The startup, per statement, operates in more than 55 countries serving more than 4,000 merchants helping them generate over $50M in sales.

Amer Tabbara, Co-Founder and CSO of Ecomz, said, “With a beautiful website storefront natively optimized for mobile usage and a powerful store management system, we are helping our customers generate millions of dollars in online sales. We want to bring our ecommerce expertise and know-how to our clients and work with them hand in hand, to show them that, contrary to belief, doing business online is easy and efficient.”

Bassel Attieh, Chairman and Managing Partner of Cedar Mundi Ventures, added, “The ecommerce industry experiences double-digit yearly growth rates in Middle East countries, often more than in the rest of the world. Ecomz cleverly supports traditional businesses and brick-and-mortar retailers in their online journey, opening up new omni-channel growth perspectives for them.”

The startup plans to use the investment to further enhance its platform with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities and to expand its reach, “By serving an increasing number of customers, SMEs and large corporations alike, Ecomz aims to create the MENA’s largest merchant hub and find new ways to connect them together.”