St. Louis-based tech startup Curate lands $1.25M in funding to help florists and creative small businesses better manage sales and operations

Curate, a St. Louis, Missouri-based tech startup, has raised $1.25 million in seed round funding to help creative small businesses thrive online. The round was led by Chicago-based OCA Ventures, with participation by Square co-founder Jim McKelvey, Cultivation Capital, and Stout Street Capital.

The funding is a major milestone for the 8-year old startup and follows an intense year during which it helped small businesses navigate Covid-19-related sales and operations challenges, from canceled events to profound supply chain disruptions. And now, as the economy emerges from Covid-19 restrictions, Curate is seeing explosive demand, with April 2021 revenues up 700x over the year prior.

Curate makes it easy for small businesses to instantly create beautiful proposals, process payments, manage complicated supply chains, and optimize communication with customers and suppliers, saving time and maximizing profitability.

Founded in 2013 by Ryan O’Neil, who owned the floral business with his wife. Curate began as a platform for florists (Stemcounter) but later expanded to help more creative-driven small businesses manage pandemic-related sales and operations.

Curate now also serves catering businesses and plans to be the premier sales and operations platform for all creative-driven small businesses. Since its founding, Curate has processed over $300 million in payments.

“We expect a massive economic boom for the events industry as people emerge from the pandemic, but small businesses will need the right technology to capitalize on the demand,” said O’Neil. “From struggling to keep up with a flood of new business opportunities to navigating an unpredictable supply chain, they’ll need tools to speed sales and streamline operations, and this is exactly what Curate was made for. With this funding round, we are perfectly positioned to help our customers grow rapidly and profitably.”