Salsify Receives $43M Series D Funding

According to Boston Business Journal, Salsify has raised $43 million in a Series D round led by Greenspring Associates, a Maryland-based investment firm that has backed other e-commerce players like TheRealReal and Rover.

In an interview, Salsify co-founder and CEO Jason Purcell said the Boston-based company is glad to have Greenspring as an investor because of the firm's experience in e-commerce and its history of backing companies through initial public offerings.

"We've got an explicit goal that we want to build a public company," Purcell said. "We pick investors with that in mind. We want to make sure we're playing in a big enough market with that in mind … It forces us to build the right kind of company for the long term."

Salsify has now raised $98 million since it was founded in 2012, including a $30 million round in January 2017 led by Boston-based venture capital firm Underscore. Underscore and other previous investors like Matrix Partners, Venrock and North Bridge Venture Partners also participated in the new funding.

Founded by a trio of Endeca alumni, Salsify originally made software to help brand manufacturers — including Coca Cola, Bosch and Fruit of the Loom — manage product photos, specs, and other digital information about their products. In the past year, Salsify has expanded its software to include a number of other organizational and analytical tools to help brands sell their products via e-commerce sites like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Jet.

Much of the new funding will continue to go toward improving the software, Purcell said, although some of it may also support the opening of a European office later this year.

The company plans to move into its new headquarters at 75-101 Federal St. in Downtown Crossing by the end of the month, according to Purcell. Salsify currently employs about 235 people, and is closing in on a target of 250 employees ahead of the end-of-2018 target that Purcell laid out earlier this year.