In a crowded digital realm, e-commerce companies are constantly updating the customer experience to respond to emerging touchpoints and to engage consumers in novel ways. Headless commerce is gaining in popularity, designed with a flexible architecture that decouples the front end of a site from the back-end commerce functionality. By decoupling, companies can rapidly iterate and test without disrupting the core commerce functionality, resulting in reduced development time while enriching the customer experience. Taking this one step further is Chord, a headless e-commerce technology platform that also integrates data thanks to its recent acquisition of Yaguara, a business intelligence platform. The company bills its offering as “commerce-as-a-service”, allowing e-commerce companies to make data-driven decisions using sophisticated insights on a scalable platform without making significant investments in internal data and technology teams. As a part of this funding and acquisition, the company re-branded and pivoted from Arfa, which initially launched as a direct-to-consumer brand studio in the spring of 2020.
AlleyWatch caught up with former Glossier executives CEO Bryan Mahoney and Chairman and COO Henry Davis to learn more about the company’s decision to rebrand, the recent acquisition, future plans, and recent round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $25M.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Chord raised $18M in Series A funding. The round was led by Eclipse Ventures and they join a strong roster of existing institutional investors including Foundation Capital, White Star Capital, Forerunner Ventures, Index Ventures, and Thrive Capital, as well as angel investors from the commerce world, most notably Will Gaybrick of Stripe, and the founders of well-known D2C brands such as Allbirds, Harry’s, and Warby Parker.
Tell us about the product or service that Chord offers.
Chord offers technology and data products that give all D2C companies, regardless of the size of their balance sheets, the ability to enhance their businesses by building on cutting-edge headless commerce technology and having access to meaningful first-party data.
Chord combines the most headless commerce stack available with a powerful data component to offer what it calls “commerce-as-a-service”. Chord gives D2C entrepreneurs and operators access to substantial competitive and performance advantages to help them in an increasingly crowded landscape without the need to invest millions of dollars building tech and data teams.
What inspired the start of Chord?
We are former Glossier executives and D2C founders who witnessed first-hand the challenges entrepreneurs faced launching brands into an increasingly competitive market. We developed Chord to help entrepreneurs avoid the heavy and disproportionately expensive technical lift required to create unique customer experiences, the challenges of accessing and using proprietary data, and the ever-increasing cost of customer acquisition and retention.
We are former Glossier executives and D2C founders who witnessed first-hand the challenges entrepreneurs faced launching brands into an increasingly competitive market. We developed Chord to help entrepreneurs avoid the heavy and disproportionately expensive technical lift required to create unique customer experiences, the challenges of accessing and using proprietary data, and the ever-increasing cost of customer acquisition and retention.
Prior to this Series A, Chord was formerly known as Arfa, a commerce platform creating the next generation of D2C brands. Realizing how powerful its commerce technology and data platform could be for the D2C industry at large, the company is now focused exclusively on selling its technology and data products. To enhance its offering, Arfa acquired the innovative business intelligence platform, Yaguara, and rebranded to Chord.
How is Chord different?
Prior to Chord, there was no commerce-as-a-service solution that offered the true flexibility of headless technology for fast-growing D2C brands with a built-in insights engine to better understand customers and capture value.
Chord offers a highly cost-effective way to move to headless commerce technology, which gives fast-growing D2C brands unrivaled page speed and flexibility to deliver truly differentiated customer experiences. By building directly on a platform that integrates with third-party products via APIs, D2C companies can also future-proof their technology. Meanwhile, Chord’s unique integrated data tools give entrepreneurs meaningful and easy access to increasingly valuable proprietary first-party data insights so they can truly understand their customers and respond to them.
There are other tech stack alternatives to support brands, but they don’t provide fast-growing D2C brands the robust data insights like Chord does. Other larger commerce players in the space require extensive re-architecting to support fast-growing brands and brands still face significant scaling issues.
What market does Chord target and how big is it?
Chord is not for the small and mom pop commerce entrepreneurs and operators, but rather the more sophisticated brand that wants the best-in-class tools with data forward insights at a lower cost. Chord is working with leading D2C brands that are doing up to $200M in revenue. Our Commerce-as-a-Service approach offers ultimate flexibility to operators so they can deliver customer experiences befitting of your brand, without the need to invest heavily in technical headcount.
Retail and e-commerce winners in the D2C market thus far have had to invest heavily in technology teams to build custom stacks or grapple with the limitations of legacy commerce technologies to scale their product. Chord changes this one-sided approach by democratizing access and making available their best-in-class technology to high-growth brands that are doing up to $200M in revenue.
Retail and e-commerce winners in the D2C market thus far have had to invest heavily in technology teams to build custom stacks or grapple with the limitations of legacy commerce technologies to scale their product. Chord changes this one-sided approach by democratizing access and making available their best-in-class technology to high-growth brands that are doing up to $200M in revenue.
What’s your business model?
Chord provides sophisticated commerce companies the tools and benefits of enterprise-level capabilities that have been reserved for only the biggest and most well-funded D2C players by offering a more agile and cost-effective way to manage their retail operations. This cost-effective move to headless commerce gives fast-growing D2C brands unrivaled page speed, customer experience, and the opportunity to build directly on a platform that integrates with third-party products via API. Meanwhile, Chord’s unique integrated data tools give entrepreneurs meaningful easy access to first-party data insights so they can truly understand their customers.
Brands build directly on Chord and Chord integrates with 3rd party products via API, which is one of the key benefits of a headless approach. Incumbent competitors in the space integrate directly with 3rd party apps through the App Store, which causes significant limitations as the number and complexity of what you need apps to do increases.
There are 2 subscription-based packages brands can sign up for to get started with Chord:
- Chord Performance ensures that brands can find all of the services they need within their one platform – a fully integrated Shopify+PWA allows companies to leverage all of the power of Shopify+ while building in a headless manner and with instrumented, commerce specific event tracking. Subscription monthly pricing starts at $1k plus payment fees.
- Chord Autonomy includes all of Chord’s performance activities with the added benefit of hosted, multi-channel OMS, and multi-currency payments API. This is Chord’s full commerce offering, giving brands full autonomy to build exactly as they’d like – owning their customers’ experience and data every step of the way to efficiently adapt to the constantly-evolving e-commerce landscape. Subscription monthly pricing starts at $1k plus payment fees.
What was the funding process like?
We were lucky that we built an early relationship with a partner that shared the same vision as us for the future of commerce. Eclipse believed exactly what we did that headless was the future but that, in order for headless commerce to be truly powerful, it needed a “brain”. Eclipse was incredibly supportive as we pursued the acquisition of Yaguara and they have strongly supported and helped us as we pursued our vision.
We were lucky that we built an early relationship with a partner that shared the same vision as us for the future of commerce. Eclipse believed exactly what we did that headless was the future but that, in order for headless commerce to be truly powerful, it needed a “brain”. Eclipse was incredibly supportive as we pursued the acquisition of Yaguara and they have strongly supported and helped us as we pursued our vision.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
We were lucky that our process involved only one firm. We do look forward to the time we can actually all get together in person with our investors though!
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Chord is pushing the boundaries of what it means to be “tech-enabled”, allowing brands to think bigger than ever, solving for opportunities to serve customers and not technical limits, whether that be international expansion, CRM, channel expansion, or marketing.
Given the ever-evolving technological world that we live and work in today, a seamless, headless platform like Chord is essential for brands looking to be adaptive and successful.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Chord officially launched in March 2021 and is currently focusing on bringing its product to the brilliant, fast-growing D2C brands. Our most recent round of funding will go towards developing more technology and data products to help entrepreneurs, including the integration of Yaguara’s data technology. We are also looking to use these upcoming months and new funding to expand the team.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Chord is currently capitalizing on the huge market potential for enterprise commerce offerings in the D2C space. By 2026, Chord’s ambition is to become the Stripe for headless e-commerce. They aim to be the leading e-commerce software and data provider for innovative, tech-forward commerce companies in the world.
