Bristol-based tech firm Bright Pearl has added to its portfolio of e-commerce related services with the acquisition of software business Inventory Planner.
Brightpearl, based in New Bond House on Bond Street, specialises in retail operations solutions for brands including Lovepop, Shopify and Big Green Egg and counts retail giants Amazon, e-Bay and Walmart among its partners.
The software company, which also has a base in Austin, Texas, has announced the purchase of Inventory Planner for an undisclosed sum, a planning tool that enables online retailers to forecast and optimise warehouse stock.
The move will see Inventory Planner running as a separate division of Brightpearl, with the parent company saying it would make a 鈥渟ignificant鈥 investment to evolve and enhance the Inventory Planner brand and expand its business.
Inventory Planner was founded in Nice, France, by Oleg Smirnov and Elena Smironva, to help local artisans who had set up online shops to forecast demand for their products, such as pottery.
Since its launch on Shopify in 2012, the platform has grown a customer base of more than 2,000 businesses, primarily in English-speaking countries, with more than half having a gross merchandise value of between $1m (拢723,000) and $100m (拢72.3m).
Brightpearl said the deal was part of its longer term strategy to become the 鈥渢op destination鈥 for e-commerce firms looking for technology to streamline their backend operations and support rapid business growth.
Bright Pearl chief executive Derek O鈥機arroll said: 鈥淭he last two years have shown the importance of demand forecasting expertise for today鈥檚 fast-growing merchants, so we鈥檙e delighted to be able to offer this best-in-class solution as an extension of the Brightpearl network.
鈥淲e鈥檙e also excited about the addition of its experienced and talented team to the wider Brightpearl family.鈥
Inventory Planner co-founder Oleg Smirnov added: 鈥淭his evolution of our relationship with Brightpearl will allow Inventory Planner to better serve its current and future clients as we tap into the full potential of our integrated solution and offer a cutting edge demand forecasting technology to the fast-growing merchants.鈥
The deal comes following a period of sustained growth for Bright Pearl, which assists more than 1,000 businesses across 26 countries with their order management, fulfilment, and warehouse management.
The business won the best Best Business Turnaround prize at the Management Today Business Awards earlier this year, after growing its recurring revenue to 拢12.3m and average deal size by 500% since 2017.
Brightpearl recently completed a series C funding round, raising 拢25m, with North East software giant Sage leading the round (拢17m).
Inventory Planner is an entirely remote company, with team members residing in the 海角视频, France, the US, Russia, and the Philippines.
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