Collingwood supporter and investor Alex Waislitz has led an $11 million elevate by way of his Thorney Funding Group into an ecommerce startup that’s pivoted from being a surfboard rental enterprise to underpinning retailers comparable to Patagonia.
5-year-old Awayco is a unified ecommerce answer that features retail Level of Sale (POS), rental and appointments for retailers to supply new and second-hand services and products to purchase, guide and hire on any platform.
Thorney’s backing was supported by high-net-worth traders and will probably be used to scale the startup’s e-commerce purposes and develop its native crew.
Awayco has acquired veteran Sydney POS retailer Barcode Options, with its chief, Shanti Kumar, changing into CEO of POSConnex, Awayco’s e-commerce answer for retailers throughout web sites, apps and marketplaces.
“Through the use of buyer knowledge in a considerate method, retailers won’t solely achieve success in constructing buyer loyalty, they’ll have the ability to differentiate themselves from their rivals,” Kumar mentioned.
Awayco founder Gideon Intestine-Silverman subsequently went on to discovered the VC and advisory agency Happenco, however will proceed to direct the corporate’s progress throughout each Awayco Enterprise and POSConnex.
He began Awayco in 2018 as a rental software program enterprise centered on the round economic system earlier than altering technique in the course of the Covid pandemic.
“By means of discussions with retailers we recognised that retailer closures have been making shoppers assume in a different way about e-commerce. Having served the rental market, we noticed that it wasn’t a giant leap to supply a unified answer that addressed the larger image of what the trendy client desires,” he mentioned
“We discovered it was vital that our answer labored inside a retailer’s current Enterprise Useful resource Planning (ERP) and POS system, in order that our clients didn’t must undertake huge capex earlier than we confirmed worth. We’re working with our retailer clients to consolidate and handle stock, mixture knowledge, and unify transactions throughout any platform and channel, to allow them to provide progressive experiences primarily based on client demand, and we’re hopeful that many extra will profit from Awayco’s tech.”
Investor Alex Waislitz mentioned: “Awayco has made superb progress as a enterprise, constructing out its expertise answer and profitable enterprise from high quality retailers. This has given us the boldness to proceed to help the corporate by main its newest funding spherical.”