SoundCommerce scores $6.5 million seed round to help brands transform operations and shopper experiences

SoundCommerce, an operations data platform startup for consumer brands and retailers,  has closed $6.5 million in seed round to accelerate hiring, platform development and customer engagement. The round was led by Silicon Valley’s Defy Partners with participation from Voyager Capital of Seattle, Stage Venture Partners of Los Angeles, the Alliance of Angels and other notable investors. The funding comes on the heels of SoundCommerce’s public launch as a data platform for commerce operations.

Founded in 2016 by long-term venture capitalists Neil Sequeira and Trae Vassallo, Defy is a Silicon Valley based venture firm exclusively focused on early Series A, an underserved part of the venture landscape. The founders’ goal was to invest in entrepreneurs and companies looking to solve complex problems. Defy’s focus is to help companies, after seed funding, mature and scale into companies ready for growth capital. The firm launched in 2017 with a $151 million fund and closed its second fund of $262 million in early 2019.

“Delivering amazing consumer experiences is incredibly hard — it’s the reason brands that directly serve consumers are worth ten times their wholesaler counterparts,” said SoundCommerce CEO Eric Best. “You’ve acquired the shopper, and now it’s time to deliver on your customer promise. This is where SoundCommerce comes in.”

“For omnichannel brands like Lucky Brand navigating the market today, both shopper expectations and operational complexity are higher than ever,” said Michael Relich, COO at Lucky Brand, a SoundCommerce customer. “SoundCommerce helps us manage the business to the key metrics and service levels that drive our profitability and customer experience across channels.”

SoundCommerce, an Operations Data Platform (ODP) for consumer brands and retailers, transforms customer experience through better decisioning across merchandising, supply, fulfillment, delivery, and customer service. SoundCommerce tracks real-time operational events, profitability and customer lifetime value to answer questions fundamental to cross-channel and direct-to-consumer success.

SoundCommerce connects data between systems and partners, monitors operations, enables business intelligence, and drives machine learning-enabled predictive decisioning. The platform is integrated with major commerce systems including Amazon.com, Shopify, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, StitchLabs, NetSuite, Dynamics 365, ReCharge and Salsify as well as common EDI formats and leading parcel post carriers.

“SoundCommerce is poised to capitalize on the value of operations data, beginning with the massive and growing consumer goods and D2C industries,” said Neil Sequeira, Co-founder and Managing Director at Defy Partners. “While everyone else prioritizes marketing, Amazon.com has proven that modern, intelligent operations are paramount to retail success.” In conjunction with the financing, Sequeira joins SoundCommerce’s board of directors.

SoundCommerce is founded by CEO Eric Best and CTO Jared Stiff, industry veterans with previous exits to Amazon, Liberty Interactive, and the public equity markets. SoundCommerce investors include Defy Partners, Voyager Capital, and the AoA. Stage Venture Partners and Kick-Start Partners led the company’s pre-seed financing.