Okendo Raises $26M to Help Retailers Build Trust with High-Impact Customer Reviews

Shopping online carries a fair share of risks, especially since shoppers do not get to see the item they are buying in person. Because of that, customer reviews and marketing are vital in determining whether a product sells. That is where Okendo comes in, with the company helping retailers capture customer reviews and putting them out there for others to see. Keep reading to learn more about Okendo and its plans for this round of funding.

MIAMI, Fla, June 21, 2022 — Okendo, the most advanced customer review platform for ecommerce brands, announced today that it has raised a $26 million Series A financing round led by Base10 Partners with participation from Craft Ventures and existing investor, Index Ventures.

Today’s announcement brings the total capital raised by Okendo to $33.5 million—mostly within the last 12 months.

“With more than 90% of shoppers reading reviews before buying, reviews are an integral component of online shopping and are essential to the growth strategy of modern commerce brands,” said Matthew Goodman, Co-Founder and CEO of Okendo. “By building trust and giving shoppers more in-the-moment decision-making tools, Okendo enables brands to drive sales and increase average order values.”

Recent testing showed that on average, shoppers interacting with Okendo had a 2.5x higher conversion rate and a 15% higher average order value.

Okendo now works with over 5,000 fast-growing merchants including industry leaders such as SKIMS, Haus, Crunchy Roll, Magic Spoon, Frame, Nomad, Buck Mason and Liquid Death.

By focusing specifically on DTC merchants on the Shopify ecommerce platform, Okendo has developed major advantages over other alternatives, including:

• An intelligent approach to review collection that utilizes customer and order data to personalize interactions, maximize content generation and ensure review authenticity.
• Highly performant content displays that minimize the impact on merchant page load speed while still offering extensive customization.
• Deep integrations with other commerce enablement technologies such as Klaviyo, Attentive and Gorgias.

“We’ve been very impressed with the continued innovation we’ve seen from Okendo”, said Hamid Saify, Senior Vice President of Digital Retail at Liquid Death Mountain Water. “Okendo reviews are one of our single most important conversion drivers. We also greatly value the customer data we collect with Okendo, which we use to inform many other aspects of our business, namely marketing, support and product development.”

Today, the company employs 80 staff across Australia and the United States. The new funding will be used to scale go-to-market activities and accelerate product development. “We anticipate total headcount to increase north of 130 by the end of 2022”, said Goodman.

“Okendo is on a mission to enable merchants to utilize their customers to grow bigger, faster. We see a significant opportunity to expand our customer-centric platform to help merchants deepen their customer relationships and engage more intentionally with customers to drive more efficient, scalable growth.”

“In this era of Shopify enabling major innovation in the retail megatrend, owning and understanding your customers is a huge unlock for any e-commerce brand looking to grow quickly,” noted TJ Nahigian, Managing Partner at Base10 Partners. “Base10 is thrilled to be partnering with Okendo to accelerate personalized experiences for both merchants and their shoppers.”

About Okendo

Okendo is a customer marketing platform proven to help Shopify merchants transform shoppers into buyers. Trusted by 5,000+ of the world’s fastest-growing consumer brands, Okendo helps merchants attract more shoppers, drive more sales and increase customer lifetime value. For more information about Okendo, visit www.okendo.io.

About Base10 Partners

Founded by Adeyemi Ajao and TJ Nahigian, Base10 is a San Francisco-based venture capital fund investing in founders who believe purpose is key profits and companies that are automating sectors of the Real Economy, including transportation, healthcare, retail, logistics, and construction. The Advancement Initiative, Base10’s growth-stage fund, donates 50% of profits to Historically Black Colleges and Universities to support financial aid and other key initiatives. Portfolio companies include Notion, Figma, FTX, Nubank, Nowports, Motive, Chili Piper, and Popmenu. Connect via www.base10.vc.

The original press release can be found on Okendo’s website.