Ecwid Equid

Ecwid offers online shopping solutions: a free SaaS (app 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 businesses to quickly and without the help of programmers build a full-fledged online store into their website, blog or social network page - just add a few lines of java script code.

For January 2021, Ecwid offices operate San Diego in, in USA, and in Ulyanovsk To Samara. Vladivostok Russia

Services

The Ecwid service is a new approach to creating online stores on seller domains or social networks that does not need third-party hosting resources. Service tools allow you to optimize product pages 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 desks and sending electronic checks to customers in accordance with the 54-FZ make Ecwid an ideal means for organizing online trading in small companies.

The main advantages of the service include the ease with which it is built into any site, regardless of the CMS platform: WordPress, Tilda, Joomla, uKit, Wix, Adobe Muse; the ability to create product displays on the pages of social networks 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 hold 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

2024: Termination of work in Russia

On September 9, 2024, the designer of Ecwid online stores stopped working in Russia. The company advised customers to switch to other services before the specified period, since after that they will no longer be able to "enter the control panel and use the platform for sales."

It's hard for us to tell you this news, especially given Ecwid's origin story. Ecwid was created in Russia to help people sell online around the world. Russian entrepreneurs are at the origins of our culture and company, the service said in a statement.

2021: Lightspeed bought Ecwid for $500m

On June 7, 2021, it became known about the sale of Ecwid to the Canadian company Lightspeed, which develops an e-commerce platform, for $500 million. Ecwid owners will receive most of this amount ($325 million) in the form of Lightspeed voting shares, the balance will be paid in cash. The deal is scheduled to close in the third quarter of 2021 after companies receive approvals from regulators.

The distinction between online sales and brick-and-mortar retail has faded. Lightspeed and Ecwid, two best-in-class platforms, will team up to expand business opportunities. By removing the barriers that sellers face on the Internet, we will quickly achieve our common vision of democratizing 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 said the integration of the platforms that companies are developing will help sellers reach buyers where they are, whether on social media or on digital marketplaces, 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, with offices in Europe, Australia and the United States. Ecwid serves more than 130,000 paying customers in more than 100 countries.

In addition to Ecwid, Lightspeed is also buying the American b2b e-commerce platform NuORDER. According to its own data, the service serves more than 3,000 brands, and the company's revenue for the year ended March 31, 2021 amounted to over $20 million (+ 30% year-on-year).

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

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

On May 21, 2020, Ecwid announced that it had raised $42 million in investments after the Russian service for creating online stores began to experience "exceptional growth" amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The main investors in the Ecwid funding round were Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and PeakSpan Capital funds. The volume of investments and the share of investors were 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 spend the attracted investment on the buyback of shares from early investors, including the 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 is helping customers make the most of going online while their traditional offline business model is in a downturn, says Pete Chang of Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. - Ruslan is a true 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 revenues and market capacity.

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

According to Ecwid, against the backdrop of 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 funding 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's 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 Internet acquiring from Modulbank is available to all Equid customers. Read more here.

2017

In 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. Paid tariffs - three: for $15 you can sell up to 100 goods, for $35 - up to 2.5 thousand goods, unlimited tariff - $99. A third of Ecwid's clients use more profitable, annual accounts: this is a monthly fee multiplied by 10^[3]

About 20 thousand new customers register on the platform every month. The bulk 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 was not disclosed). Runa Capital has also increased its stake in the company - to prevent it from blurring. In addition to funds, co-owners of Ecwid are Ruslan Fazlyev and another co-founder - Yury Zaytsev.

2011: Runa Capital gets more than 10% in company for $1.5m

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

The money from the investor went to promote, hire staff and open a California office - he 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.

Notes