8fig is a company that propels sellers to 8-figure revenue through flexible funding and supply chain planning tools. To learn more about the company, Pulse 2.0 interviewed 8fig co-founder and chief revenue officer Roei Yellin.
Roei Yellin’s Background
Yellin started out as a two-time Olympic athlete, competing in canoe sprints.
“This experience reinforced the importance of hard work and dedication, which led me to great success in the startup world, where I built and launched several successful products and apps,” said Yellin. “Taking ideas and growing them into sharp, revolutionary products that users love became my passion. I accumulated over a decade of experience in the startup space, participating in over 30 fintech investments and serving as the COO at Prytek. While establishing myself in the fintech space, I gained a strong understanding of payment systems and supply chains, which eventually led me to co-found 8fig.”
Formation Of 8fig
(8fig’s founders / Photo credit: Look Photography)
While working with co-founders Yaron Shapira and Assaf Dagan in the fields of payment systems, risk analysis, and supply chains, the founders noticed that many e-commerce sellers struggle with their ability to grow.
“This challenge is twofold, as many e-commerce SMBs lack both the funding and cash flow management resources they need to reach their full potential. Since such businesses are often run by a solopreneur or a small team, they need external support,” Yellin explained. “We came up with the idea for 8fig to fill this need. Our aim was, and continues to be, to provide these small businesses with both the tools and the funding they need to succeed. We provide them with the ability to manage their cash flow by not only offering a flexible financing solution but also by aligning the flow of capital to their supply chain. “
Favorite Memory
What has been Yellin’s favorite memory working for 8fig so far? When the team first started 8fig three years ago, they used a simple spreadsheet to show e-commerce sellers how to grow their businesses.
“I loved seeing the expression on their faces when I presented them with their growth potential. But the best part was when they followed our Growth Plan and achieved the results we projected for them,” Yellin reflected.
Challenges Faced Building The Company
What were some of the challenges Yellin faced in building the company and has the macroeconomic climate affected the company?
Yellin told me that building 8fig during a global pandemic was definitely a challenge that required them to be innovative and flexible. And with the e-commerce industry facing supply chain disruptions and inflation, the team knew they had to find new ways to set themselves apart from the competition.
“We were able to accomplish this by offering e-commerce sellers a unique solution that helped them optimize their supply chain and resolve cash flow problems. This solution was one of the main factors that made 8fig stand out as a growth partner that enables sellers to achieve their business goals. The current macroeconomic climate, complete with inflation and diminished consumer spending, directly affects the e-commerce market and global supply chain,” Yellin acknowledged. “This creates new challenges for e-commerce sellers, our customers, directly impacting 8fig’s business model. We are now seeing an even greater need for our product, as e-commerce sellers are finding it difficult to access the financial support and resources necessary to thrive in the current economic environment.”
So they chose to expand 8fig’s offering to provide customers with additional value. And the team added a number of new tools to the growth platform, including a freight booking solution and a sales analytics dashboard with more in the works. Plus the team saw the need to optimize the Growth Plans to lower the risk involved.
“We did this by injecting flexibility into our platform and improving our forecasting methods to more accurately project each business’s potential. With this adjustment, 8fig is able to continue to fund e-commerce business owners, offering them the working capital and tools they need to grow in any economic climate, and in some cases, saving them from failure,” Yellin noted.
Core Products
What are 8fig’s core products and features? 8fig’s core product is a growth and funding platform designed exclusively for small to medium-sized e-commerce businesses. And the company provides personalized funding solutions to e-commerce sellers while offering them valuable tools and resources to optimize their cash flow, plan their supply chain, coordinate freight and logistics, and more.
8fig’s funding is unique in that it is equity-free, fast, flexible, and continuous. And instead of a one-time lump sum payment, 8fig provides e-commerce sellers with ongoing capital infusions – which are aligned with their supply chain costs in order to optimize their cash flow. Plus utilizing the company’s deep understanding of the specific needs of sellers, the various trading platforms, and other financial data, the team developed unique models and automation that help merchants overcome their cash flow problems and achieve rapid growth.
Sellers are able to also adjust their funding plan and remittance schedule in real time since they know that e-commerce can be unpredictable. This is a major benefit when sellers face supply chain disruptions, unexpected changes in demand, and other setbacks that might otherwise harm their businesses.
Evolution Of 8fig’s Technology
How has 8fig’s technology evolved since launching? 8fig’s technology has evolved immensely since launching.
“We have been able to use the large amounts of data we collected to improve our risk analysis and forecasting algorithms, as well as automate a significant portion of 8fig’s processes. This allows us to assist customers at scale, an important part of 8fig’s advancement,” Yellin answered. “In addition to improvements and upgrades to our existing technology, we have developed and released several new features. For example, the 8fig platform now includes a sales analytics dashboard, which provides users with valuable information about their sales as well as demand forecasts and benchmarks.”
Funding
8fig recently announced it raised $140 million in Series B funding in combined equity and credit facility led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) with participation from existing investors Battery Ventures, Localglobe, Hetz, the Jesselson family, and Silicon Valley Bank (a division of First Citizens Bank). This brings 8fig’s total funding to $196.5 million.
Significant Milestones
What have been some of 8fig’s most significant milestones? Since the company started out, they have delivered over $500 million in funding to online sellers.
“Our joint successes have resulted in huge growth for 8fig. In 2022, we increased our client base and annual revenue by 900% and 800% respectively. In the same time frame, we expanded our global workforce to 90 employees, a threefold increase. We are constantly developing our platform’s capabilities, and our latest breakthroughs were launching a mobile app, as well as freight management and payment services,” Yellin highlighted. “Getting recognized for our hard work is always nice, so we were all very excited to be selected as one of Accel’s Top 100 Fintech companies. It also meant a lot to be listed among Built In’s Best Places to Work in Austin as well. It is clear to us that reaching every one of our milestones has been a team effort. Now, we celebrate the Series B funding of $140 million at a time when getting funded has become more complicated.”
Customer Success Stories
When I asked Yellin about some customer success stories, he cited GLITCH Energy and DAVAN.
1.) GLITCH Energy – which is run by Jacob Johnson – offers an energy drink powder targeted at gamers. Their marketing was top-notch so they saw solid sales growth early on. But they ran into a problem many e-commerce sellers face: frequent stockouts with not enough cash flow to order enough inventory ahead of time, causing lost sales and growth momentum. So they got flexible funding from 8fig and were able to create sustained and exponential growth. The team also helped them optimize their supply chain and eliminate stockouts. Plus 8fig’s capital also enabled them to invest in new product lines and expand their operations. This led to the GLITCH becoming a 7-figure seller and maintaining its growth momentum.
2.) DAVAN is another great example. The company’s products were incredibly popular and they saw how much potential their store had, but they lacked the funding to build on this growth. 8fig funded them and they did extremely well. 8fig’s tools for planning and optimizing supply chains helped them streamline the whole operation and this meant planning out their freight shipments well in advance to match their sales predictions. This was important as the COVID-19 pandemic was causing supply chain disruptions everywhere. The team was also able to invest in improving their keyword ranking to significantly boost DAVAN’s visibility and reach.
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is 8fig pursuing?
“There are over 2.5 million active sellers on Amazon today. Shopify hosts around a million, and a further half million are spread across other platforms from eBay to WooCommerce. All of them are potential 8fig partners,” Yellin replied. “The world of e-commerce is constantly growing, no matter what recession, pandemic, or global crisis is happening. We believe that this growth will continue for a long, long time as more and more consumers across the globe decide to do their shopping online. Today, around 40% of Amazon’s sellers earn enough to be eligible for an 8fig Growth Plan. Our threshold is $100,000 in revenue over a minimum of six months. That means our TAM size is around one million, on Amazon’s platform alone.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates 8fig from its competition? 8fig is different from the competitors since they are not just a funding company and they are seen as a growth partner.
“While we do offer flexible funding plans to e-commerce sellers, we also create an alignment of interests as we work with e-commerce businesses in the long term to foster sustainable growth,” Yellin emphasized. “We do this through our unique system of funding, which aligns continuous capital to each seller’s individual supply chain, optimizing cash flow. The additional tools and resources sellers can access through the 8fig platform are designed and built to assist business owners with the various aspects of running an e-commerce business, giving them the power to reach their full potential.”
Plus Yellin also pointed out that another important differentiating factor between 8fig and other funding companies is their flexibility. 8fig sellers can adjust their funding plan and remittance schedule in real-time, enabling them to adapt to unforeseen circumstances which as e-commerce sellers know are inevitable.
Future Company Goals
What are 8fig’s future company goals?
“At 8fig, we’re planning to help more e-commerce businesses grow by expanding our funding capabilities. We’re also working on new banking solutions and cash flow prediction models that will give sellers alerts and insights based on their business performance. Our goal is to become a one-stop-shop for managing e-commerce businesses,” Yellin concluded. “We aim to share with sellers every possible tool and utilize our expertise to help them optimize and scale their businesses. E-commerce is a complicated place. Too many people with great ideas end up getting out because they don’t know how to handle operational aspects like managing a supply chain. We want to ensure that lacking certain technical know-how isn’t what derails a business that offers great value.”
So the company plans to assist sellers with as many aspects of their e-commerce journey as we can. It’s not just about being able to stick around, it’s about thriving. 8fig really does believe that with the right guidance, every seller has the potential to bring in 8 figures.
