Ecwid Ekvid

Ecwid offers solutions for creating online stores: a free SaaS (application as a service) solution that is compatible with any site and works on social networks. The project was founded by Ruslan Fazlyev in 2009 as an offshoot of Creative Development, which created the X-Cart e-commerce platform in 2000.

The Ecwid cloud widget allows a business to quickly and without the help of programmers to embed a full-fledged online store in its website, blog or page in the social network - just add several lines of java script code.

As of January 2021, Ecwid offices operate in San Diego in the USA, in Ulyanovsk, Samara and Vladivostok in Russia.

Services

The Ecwid service is a new approach to creating online stores on merchant domains or social networks that do not need resources from third-party hosting. Service tools allow you to optimize pages with goods for mobile and desktop devices and accept payment through payment services popular in Russia: Robokassa, Yandex Money, QIWI, PayPal, Sberbank and Tinkoff. And the availability of ready-made solutions for using online cash registers and sending electronic checks to customers in accordance with 54-FZ make Ecwid an ideal tool for organizing online trading of small companies.

The main advantages of the service include the ease with which it is embedded in any site, regardless of the CMS platform: WordPress, Tilda, Joomla, uKit, Wix, Adobe Muse; ability to create storefronts of goods on social network pages in Contact or Facebook; automatic unloading of goods/synchronization of balances on popular trading platforms Yandex.Market, eBay and Google Purchases.

Ecwid also allows you to conduct promotions and sales, create discount coupons, promote the store in search and social networks, calculate the cost of delivery from such popular logistics services as Russian Post, Boxberry, SDEK and others.

History

2021: Lightspeed bought Ecwid for $500 million

On June 7, 2021, it became known that Ecwid was sold to the Canadian company Lightspeed, which develops the e-commerce platform, for $500 million. Most of this amount ($325 million) Ecwid owners will receive  in the form of voting shares of Lightspeed, the balance will be paid in cash. Closing of the transaction is planned in the third quarter of 2021 after the companies receive permits from regulators.

The distinction between online sales and regular retail has disappeared. Lightspeed and Ecwid, the two best-in-class platforms, will merge to expand business opportunities. By removing the barriers that sellers  face on the Internet, we will quickly achieve our common vision of the democratization of retail for independent enterprises around the world,   "said Ruslan Fazlyev, founder of Ecwid, a native of Ulyanovsk.

Ruslan Fazlyev, founder of the Ecwid project

Lightspeed reported that integrating the platforms that companies develop will help sellers reach customers where they are, whether on social networks or on digital trading platforms, increasing sales flexibility and multi-channel.

The capitalization of Lightspeed, founded in 2005, by June 7, 2021 exceeds $9.5 billion. The company is headquartered in Montreal, offices in Europe, Australia and the USA. Ecwid  serves more than 130,000 paying customers in more than 100 countries.

In addition to Ecwid, Lightspeed is also buying an American b2b platform for e-commerce  NuORDER. According to its own data, the service serves more than 3000 brands, and the company's revenue for the year ended March 31, 2021, amounted to over $20 million (+ 30% year to year).

As for Ecwid, this company, according to the publication TechCrunch, until 2020 was in the field of view of venture investors. Thanks to investments, the startup was able to double the rate of business growth.^[1]

2020: Attracting $42 million in investments, including from Morgan Stanley

On May 21, 2020, Ecwid announced the attraction of $42 million in investments after the Russian service for creating online stores began to experience "exceptional growth" in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.

The main investors in the Ecwid financing round were Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and PeakSpan Capital. The volume of investments and the share of investors are not disclosed. It is only noted that Ecwid CEO Ruslan Fazlyev will remain the third largest shareholder after the new funds.

Morgan Stanley has invested in a Russian service to create Ecwid online stores. He raised $42 million

Ecwid intends to partially spend the attracted investments on the repurchase of shares from early investors, including a fund with Russian roots Runa Capital and the iTech Capital fund, as well as on the double expansion of the team for growth in the international market.

Ecwid helps customers make the most of going online, while their traditional offline business model is in decline, says Pete Chang of Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. - Ruslan is a real strategist who built a team and created a set of solutions that allow any family store to join the world of online trading, significantly increasing the income and capacity of the market.

Pete Chang will join the Ecwid board of directors, as well as co-founder and managing partner of PeakSpan Capital Phil Dur.

According to Ecwid, amid the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of new customers of the company has tripled, and the volume of payments from existing customers has increased by more than half. Thanks to this, the company managed to raise six times more funds in one round than all the time before.

The new wave of financing gives us the resources and flexibility to accelerate the development of the e-commerce platform and further international expansion, "Fazylev said in a conversation with VentureBeat.[2]

2019: Integration with Mobulbank Internet Acquiring

On June 10, 2019, Modulbank announced the completion of the integration of its online acquiring with the designer of Ecwid online stores. The platform for June 2019 is used by two million sellers around the world, 170 thousand of them work in Russia. Now the online acquiring from Modulbank is available to all Equid customers. More details here.

2017

For the summer of 2017, Ecwid has more than a million users, but only a part of them use paid tariffs (which one is not disclosed). Users of the free version can sell no more than 10 units of goods. There are three paid tariffs: for $15 you can sell up to 100 goods, for $35 - up to 2.5 thousand goods, unlimited tariff - $99. A third of Ecwid customers use more profitable, annual accounts: this is a monthly fee multiplied by 10^[3]

About 20 thousand new customers are registered on the platform every month. Most of them live in the USA, Australia, Canada, Great Britain and Latin America. From Russia - only 7-9% of customers.

2014

In 2014, Ecwid had another investor - the iTechCapital fund invested $5 million in the company and received about 20% in it (the exact amount of the transaction is not disclosed). Runa Capital also increased its stake in the company - to prevent its blurring. In addition to the funds, the co-owners of Ecwid are Ruslan Fazlyev and another co-founder - Yuri Zaitsev.

2011: Runa Capital receives more than 10% in the company for $1.5 million

In 2011, the Runa Capital fund invested $1.5 million in the platform and received a 10-15% stake in the company (the exact terms of the transaction are not disclosed). Ecwid became a separate legal entity (issued by LLC), and Dmitry Chikhachev, one of the founders of Runa Capital, joined the company's board of directors.

The money from the investor went to promote, hire staff and open a California office - it was also made a separate legal entity. American Ecwid was led by "cloud industry veteran" Jim O'Hara, who previously held senior positions at Cisco Systems and Veritas.

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