Yotpo secures Shopify partnership, over $30 million investment on road to Nasdaq

Tel Aviv-based marketing service Yotpo announced on Thursday yet another landmark on its road to a Nasdaq IPO in 2022, unveiling a strategic investment and multi-year partnership with commerce giant Shopify. The companies didn't reveal the sum of investment, but Calcalist estimates it to be between $30-40 million. Yotpo is heading to Nasdaq at a $2-2.5 billion valuation.

Shopify, the global commerce platform with more than 1.7 million merchants worldwide, is aiming to help accelerate Yotpo's growth and product development, ultimately empowering merchants to better connect with their customers and grow their businesses through innovative marketing tools and solutions.

This stronger alliance will position Yotpo as one of the early launch partners for new Shopify development features. In this role, Yotpo aspires to develop first-to-market technologies that help merchants of all sizes stand out in a competitive landscape.

Yotpo, which completed a $230 million funding round at a $1.4 billion valuation in March, was founded in 2011 by Omri Cohen and Tomer Tagrin as a platform for creating consumer reviews and visual content. It is working to create a full platform experience by connecting its current products — which to date include Yotpo SMS Marketing, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals, Yotpo Reviews, and Yotpo Visual UGC. This connected suite of solutions is meant to unlock unified customer data that will allow brands to get more from every campaign and maximize their ROI.

"This new platform partnership is a significant milestone in our company journey, in our longstanding relationship with Shopify, and in service to our customers," said CEO Tomer Tagrin. "With the last year's addition of SMS marketing to the Yotpo platform, we now have five cutting-edge products available to Shopify merchants.

"Our two companies share a common belief that, for the future of commerce to thrive, merchants must be able to own direct relationships with their customers. This platform partnership directly responds to the enormous amount of time and energy merchants currently are required to spend competing for customer attention. Through deeper integration between our two technologies, Yotpo and Shopify are working together to innovate on the marketing tech stack and dramatically recode the infrastructure of e-Commerce."

Brandon Chu, VP Product Acceleration at Shopify, added: "Yotpo is a shining example of what is possible in the Shopify Ecosystem of partners and developers. We have watched the team deliver incredible value to merchants and have admired their tenacity and passion for building a better version of eCommerce where independent brands own relationships with their customers. Their marketing technology solutions have become trusted by thousands of merchants, and we are thrilled to invest in their growth and create even more impact, together.”

Mutual customers for Yotpo and Shopify include Steve Madden, Princess Polly, Brooklinen, ThirdLove, UNTUCKit, Chubbies, Sol de Janeiro, Alkaline Herb Shop and Parks Project.