Burnaby, British Columbia-based Cymax Group Technologies has found its match in majority owner and Plenty of Fish founder Markus Frind, who is taking over as its new permanent CEO.
Frind steps in for interim CEO Mike Herenberg, who will continue at the company as COO.
“Stepping into this subsidiary to provide direction, vision and focus.” -Markus Frind
Herenberg took the post on an interim basis following former CEO Rizwan Somji’s departure in December. Somji, who had been serving as CEO since 2019, left the company to focus on his family, although according to his LinkedIn, he remains an on-call advisor for Cymax.
In a statement, Frind said he is excited about the opportunity and that he has “lots of ideas on how we can infuse and inject technology and AI to continue to drive growth.”
Cymax was founded in 2004 as a furniture marketplace and has since grown to include multichannel e-commerce platform Channel Gate and shipping management platform Freight Club as part of its offerings.
Channel Gate helps furniture vendors with e-commerce sales management such as product listing, marketing, order management, customer service, and returns. Cymax says it includes a proprietary AI tool that automatically prices items and integrates across various online marketplaces including Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and more.
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Freight Club helps vendors and manufacturers manage shipment quoting, booking, and tracking and includes tools that help with claims management and shipping protection. Cymax says its analytics dashboard allows users to weigh the cost-effectiveness of different carriers by measuring delivery speed, damage rates, and costs.
Frind first invested in Cymax in leading its $30-million Series A round in October 2015, following which he joined the company’s board of directors. That investment came months after the sale of the online dating platform Plenty of Fish to Match.com in July 2015 for $575 million, which Frind founded in 2003.
In January, Frind told Business in Vancouver he owned roughly 70 percent of Cymax, during which the company was actively looking for its permanent CEO.
Upon taking on the responsibility himself, Frind said in a LinkedIn post that he was “stepping into this subsidiary to provide direction, vision and focus.”
UPDATE (03/13/2024): A previous version of this article mistakenly referred to “Freight Club” as “Freight Gate.” BetaKit regrets the error.
Feature image courtesy Frind Properties.
