SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Please replace the release issued on November 8 at 9:00 a.m. ET, with the following corrected version due to multiple revisions.
The corrected release reads:
TRACKSTREET RAISES $2 MILLION IN SEED FUNDING LED BY OKAPI CAPITAL
TrackStreet today announced the company has raised $2 million in Seed funding led by Okapi Capital. TrackStreet will leverage the funding to further develop its proprietary AI-based technology, extend its marketplace analytics and automated brand protection platform and accelerate market momentum. Additional investors that participated in this funding round include Stage Venture Partners, SaaS Venture Capital and several angel investors, including successful eCommerce-related company founders, CEOs and executives.
“Manufacturers that sell through resellers and fail to effectively protect their brands online are facing the threat of extinction. They’re stuck in a vicious cycle and a ‘race to the bottom’ on price,” said Andrew Schydlowsky, TrackStreet’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “The ubiquity of the Internet means that any price differences between online sellers and brick and mortar retailers are instantly obvious to consumers and can cost companies millions in reduced profit margin while negatively disrupting sales channels.”
Many brands have responded to eroding margins by implementing price policies designed to preserve brand value and protect authorized dealers. But constantly combing the vastness of the Internet – including major marketplaces like Amazon and eBay – to detect policy violations and to enforce policies across non-compliant, and, in some cases, anonymous online resellers seems like an impossible task. That is where TrackStreet comes in.
The TrackStreet brand protection and growth platforms have been the backbone of Minimum Advertised Price, Unilateral Price Policy, and Minimum Resale Policy enforcement efforts for well over 100 brands, including Deckers Brands, K&N Engineering, Smith Optics and Sig Sauer.
“TrackStreet has been pivotal to our brand protection program. TrackStreet has allowed us to monitor and better enforce our Minimum Advertised Price Policy. We get a real-time view of where violations are happening, and the entire process of enforcement is more streamlined,” said Lisa Bereda, Assistant General Counsel, Brands and Corporate Governance at Deckers Brands.
“We are very excited about our investment in TrackStreet because they have built the best solution available for a massive problem that is growing larger and more acute by the day for any company that is utilizing eCommerce channels to sell their products – which is just about everyone,” said Jeff Bocan, Partner at Okapi Capital. “TrackStreet’s customers are armed with an almost omniscient view of dealer behavior through TrackStreet’s easy-to-use interface. Companies can automate enforcement activities that produce rapid and substantial reductions in policy violations within a very short time. TrackStreet’s SaaS solution saves customers big bucks in operating expenses and is an essential margin-erosion prevention tool for manufacturers with products sold online.”
Brett Queener, former EVP and GM of Marketing Cloud at Salesforce.com and a TrackStreet investor and advisor, spoke highly of the company’s future prospects. “TrackStreet is building steady momentum in acquiring and retaining customers who love the market data that they now have access to and who are using TrackStreet’s solution to save time and money enforcing their brand protection programs.” said Queener. “TrackStreet is winning customers away from competitors who want an easier-to-use and technically superior eCommerce monitoring platform.”
About TrackStreet
TrackStreet is a leading provider of SaaS-based brand protection and expansion technologies used by over 100 brands to protect brand value, enforce distribution policies and increase channel sales. For more information, visit www.trackstreet.com
About Okapi Capital
Okapi provides long-term capital and management support to startups and early-stage companies. For more information, please visit: www.okapivc.com.
