- Mobile shopping leader Wish announced it raised a Series H round of funding at a post-money valuation of $11.2 billion led by General Atlantic
Mobile shopping leader Wish announced that it has raised a Series H round of financing at a post-money valuation of $11.2 billion led by General Atlantic. This valuation is a major jump from the $8.7 billion valuation based on its last funding round in late 2017.
Wish is planning to use the funding for marketing and working capital. Plus the company is planning to expand its merchant footprint in Europe and North America along with improving logistics.
“Wish has succeeded by creating an entertainment experience that captures the way consumers browse and discover products on mobile devices,” said Wish CEO Peter Szulczewski. “We are honored to have General Atlantic join us as we deliver on our mission to make affordable goods accessible to everyone in the world.”
Wish also recently introduced Wish Local — which is a program that will develop partnerships with local brick and mortar retailers thus allowing products to be locally picked up in stores so that products are closer to customer bases. And customers will have the option to collect products directly from local businesses so in-store traffic will also increase. This approach offers customers more flexibility and quicker shipping while shop owners can boost sales from enhanced foot traffic.
“General Atlantic shares the long-term vision of Peter and the Wish management team to build an accessible and truly globalized shopping marketplace. Wish is a category-defining business that helped pioneer mobile commerce and discovery shopping, and it has the opportunity to continue providing solutions that address the real needs and preferences of hundreds of millions of value-conscious consumers around the world. We are excited to partner with Wish as it continues to build on its market-leading position and create an enduring global marketplace business,” added General Atlantic managing director Tanzeen Syed (who has joined Wish’s board of directors) in a statement.
Founded in San Francisco in 2010 by Danny Zhang and Szulczewski, Wish quickly became a leading e-commerce platform. And Wish utilizes big data principles and machine-learning to create an entertaining and personalized browsing experience for each user. Wish leverages a global network of direct suppliers and providing access to top quality and affordable products to anyone with a smartphone.
As of 2018, Wish has been seeing more than 80 million monthly active users, over one million merchants, and it sells nearly 1 billion products annually.
