Commerce Guys Receives $5 Million in Funding

JACKSON -- Commerce Guys, developers of the Drupal Commerce e-commerce system, Tuesday announced $5 million in venture funding.

Commerce Guys is based in Paris, France with its North American headquarters in Jackson.

The round represents Series A funding for the company and was led by the Paris-based investment firm Alven Capital, an independent venture capital firm which manages €150 million for institutional investors in the Internet, media and technology sectors; Espoo, Finland-based Open Ocean Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm focusing on European startups deploying user community or open-source business models, known for its early investment in MySQL AB, which was later sold to Sun Microsystems for $1 billion in 2008; and Paris-based ISAI, the French entrepreneur's fund, also contributed to the round.

Said Mike O'Connor, co-founder and president of North America, Commerce Guys: "The funds will propel our efforts to expand the Drupal Commerce technology and ecosystem, and allow us to focus on providing solutions to both global and emerging e-commerce companies."

With the new funding and ongoing growth, Commerce Guys anticipates adding 30 key staff members in the coming months, half of them in its North American headquarters. The company currently has 37 employees split between the United States and its European headquarters in Paris.

With this Series A round, Commerce Guys has received a total of $6 million in funding; ISAI provided an initial seed round in 2010.

"Alven has a long history of funding e-commerce start-ups and we know how important it is to have the right underlying technology," said Nicolas Celier, partner at Alven Capital. "Drupal Commerce offers e-merchants the kind of flexibility and innovation they need to execute successfully in the marketplace."

Drupal Commerce, created by Commerce Guys, is an open-source framework now in use in over 10,000 Web sites worldwide. Drupal Commerce offers a range of capabilities, including the ability to upload catalogs of merchandise, accept payments online, integrate with shipping services and interact with customers. The system offers capabilities for complex product, content, community and context management.

"We understand the power of open-source as a strategic, long-term and robust technology solution," said Tom Henriksson, partner, Open Ocean and Commerce Guys strategic committee member. "We believe that Drupal Commerce is positioned to be a leading solution in the e-commerce software industry. We are excited to support Commerce Guys in developing a rapidly scalable business rooted in the vibrant open-source Drupal community."

As an enterprise-grade platform with a proven track record of powering the busiest Web sites in the world, Drupal allows organizations to develop a strategic, long-term Web strategy without the confines of proprietary systems. There are no licensing fees, saving many organizations hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in annual fixed-costs while providing unparalleled options and flexibility.

More at www.commerceguys.com, www.alvencapital.com or www.openoceancapital.com.