E-Commerce Startup MikMak Raises $10 Million to Expand Platform

E-commerce platform MikMak has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The company will use the money to expand in the U.S. and internationally. MikMak has seen exponential growth due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Rachel Tipograph, MikMak's founder and CEO told Cheddar that "COVID has accelerated e-commerce demand by five years. So, where we all thought the industry was going to be in the year 2025, it arrived on the week of March 9."

MikMak is an e-commerce marketing and insights platform. Basically, MikMak partners with brands to create easy online shopping experiences. The platform connects shoppers to more than 200 online retailers.

MikMak concentrates on the consumer packaged goods, beauty/personal care, electronics, food/beverage, alcohol, and toy spaces. All of these spaces have seen growth in their online shopping share since the coronavirus pandemic started. 

MikMak also allows companies to "manage their online retail strategies by gaining real-time insights and a holistic view of activity across major online retailers like Amazon, Target, and Walmart, as well as online media," according to a report from Crunchbase. 

According to Cheddar, "MikMak works with brands like Nestle and L'Oreal to create captivating digital ad campaigns and links them to retailers with major online presences." The platform makes it easy for consumers to find the products they want. MikMak also makes it easy for brands to advertise and track the online portion of their business.

The company started getting more attention after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. "Consumer demand for e-commerce expanded by five years overnight, positively impacting our revenue 50 percent from March to present day," said Tipograph. 

Tipograph also said, "My business was growing faster than I imagined. All of a sudden, I had an opportunity to dominate the market. When VCs started salivating over our business metrics, I decided to be opportunistic." It really seems to be a case of being in the right market space at the exact right time.

One of the areas MikMak focuses on is food. More people have been buying groceries and pantry items online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"To put it in perspective, in the grocery category, e-commerce in 2019 was 3 percent of revenue. Fast forward to the week of March 9, overnight it became 33 percent of revenue," Tipograph told Cheddar. "It's been absolutely insane."

Tipograph also said, "Brands want more data and we've got it. The fastest growing demographic in terms of shift during COVID has actually been people that are over 60 years old." She said that older people shifted to more online shopping when the pandemic started. She suspects that they will continue to shop online after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

MikMak was ready to handle the influx of online shopping and help brands along the way. As a result, the company was able to secure the funding to help it keep growing.