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The direct-to-consumer business world continues to buzz. It’s not enough to start a business and advertise on Google and Facebook: today’s e-commerce merchants must be masters of all channels.
That’s where Pietra comes in. The former Uber team, led by Ronak Trivedi, co-founder and CEO, launched in 2019 as a marketplace for jewelry sellers to help creators launch product lines and build back-ends to scale by 2021. Raising $15 million in Series A capital in the process.
“Running a profitable DTC business or e-commerce business is becoming increasingly difficult,” Trividi said in an interview. “We’re entering an era where you can’t overspend and rob your way to continued growth. There are so many channels and they have so many brands online that you have to stand out. Your content needs to be good and you need to be creative and smart about how you grow your business online.
As of 2021, the e-commerce infrastructure company has now grown to 100,000 active users to guide customers through the process of creating an e-commerce business, from sourcing more than 1,000 suppliers to order fulfillment. Pietra ended 2022 with 100x trading volume and 35x year-over-year revenue growth.
Today, the company announced that it has closed $16 million in new capital in the form of a Series A extension led by M13. Founders Fund, which led the initial Series A round, also participated in this round, as did TQ Ventures and Abstract Ventures. Pietra has raised a total of $36 million and its latest round increased the company’s valuation by 30%, Trividi said.
Petra Logistics Dashboard. Image Credits: Stone
With the new funding, Pietra has entered the business enablement sector with a revamped Pietra membership, starting at $39 a month with a monthly subscription to get free software tools for influencer marketing. It also has a third-party logistics network and a sales and distribution channel. You can use Pietra for free. Currently, 10% of its users are paid, Trivedi said.
In addition, the company It plans to expand globally by 2023, doubling the size of its team and expanding operations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
Trivedi called the recent round “lucky”. The company still had the runway for more than two years, but it was unable to provide service last year to bring in some additional workers and meet demand. For example, Pietra had those 100,000 customer registrants, but only one of those could log in as a customer. Additionally, the company didn’t want to develop a full Series B until it had hit some internal progress with customers and product offerings.
“We want to build the world’s largest membership network for companies,” says Trivedi. “Over time, Pietra is going to offer all the tools, apps and software that people use to make more money, but at a lower cost to members.”
Meanwhile, as part of the investment, Carter Ream and Brent Murry from M13 are joining Pietra’s board. Reum, co-founder and managing partner, started M13 with his brother, Courtney Reum, after Veev sold their spirit business Veev to Luxco in 2016.
He also watched his wife, Paris Hilton, grow her e-commerce business into a $4 billion empire, so for him, Pietra understands how to build a business from the ground up through distribution.
“The thesis that they have 100,000 members and 9,000 paid subscribers shows you it’s done right,” Ream told TechCrunch. “After following this company for two years, they’re at the right time where all of these things are converging: I love their history at Uber, their ability to think as a platform, and how they can leverage the next generation of DTC companies.”
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