Toronto-based Bonsai, an online shopping platform that offers men’s brands, has just raised $2.5 million in seed funding.
Bonsai’s seed round, which was led by Michael La Brier of Hunters Capital, brings the company’s total funding to $3.3 million. The company’s platform provides an internal search engine that allows users to browse their favourite brands and select from several product lists.
“Our purpose is simple. Resolve the fundamental consumer pain points of e-commerce and retail in general,” said Saad Siddiqui, co-founder of Bonsai. “We use sophisticated data to power artificial intelligence that delivers highly-personalized shopping experiences. Consumer brands and the ecosystems that power them have to adapt to new technology.”
Bonsai said it will use the funding towards launching a Canada-wide campaign to spread awareness, building an in-house technology arm to maintain its core marketplace product, and releasing iterations across channels like Android and desktop to increase the number of men who use its app.
The company also claims that this financing is the result “of a year of steady growth for Bonsai,” since the company added several new international merchants, grew in terms of sales, and expanded its team by appointing veterans from companies like Moneris, PayPal, and Holt Renfrew.
“Bonsai’s content-retail relationship is designed to align with the behaviours of an emerging cohort of ‘urban digerati,’ users who socialize with brands,” said Siddiqui.
