Optoro Scores $75M

This latest round, led by Franklin Templeton, included financing from new and existing investors Revolution Growth, Generation Investment Management, and Tenfore Holdings, amongst others.

"At Franklin Templeton Investments we look for companies that can build long-term value for our shareholders and we believe that Optoro can do that by solving the growing problem of customers returns, particularly in e-commerce," said Robert Stevenson at Franklin Templeton. "Optoro's platform and large data set enable retailers and brands to manage the $500 billion customer returns market, and generate measurable benefits for their bottom line. With this investment Optoro can rapidly scale the platform to reach more retailers and brands."

Optoro helps leading retailers and brands manage, process, and sell returned and excess inventory. Using comprehensive data analytics, Optoro's returns optimization platform determines the best path for each item, maximizing recovery, lowering processing costs, and reducing environmental waste. Over the past two years, the volume of goods routed by Optoro's software platform has grown more than fivefold.

"The retail industry has a major problem — returns create tremendous financial, operational, and environmental waste," said Tobin Moore, CEO and cofounder of Optoro. "With this new round of funding, we plan to accelerate the adoption of our solution with the world's leading retailers and brands, and invest in R&D to take our solution to the next level. This positions us to help more retailers increase their profits, while also minimizing their environmental footprints."

"With the return rate growing nearly 10 percent year over year, retailers need a technology solution to recoup value and reduce costs," said Revolution Growth partner and Optoro board member Ted Leonsis. "We're excited to further our investment in one of the most promising growth companies as it continues to prove its value to retailers and brands."

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as sole placement agent, and Cooley LLP acted as legal adviser to Optoro in connection with this financing.

About Optoro

Optoro is a technology company that is transforming the way the nation's leading retailers and manufacturers process and sell their returned and excess inventory. Through its use of comprehensive, world-class data analytics, Optoro's software platform determines the best path for returned and excess goods, maximizing recovery value, reducing environmental waste and creating a better customer experience. Founded in 2010, Optoro is headquartered in Washington, D.C. Optoro, BLINQ, and BULQ are trademarks of Optoro, Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. For more information, please visit www.Optoro.com and follow us on Twitter at @optoroinc.