Lightspeed adds eCommerce platform with acquisition of Dutch retail software company

Montreal’s Lightspeed POS, developers of a point-of-sale platform for retailers and restaurateurs, have acquired Amsterdam-based SEOshop, the fastest growing eCommerce platform in Europe.

The acquisition will become a new offering, Lightspeed eCom, the company’s first offering for online-only merchants.

“This is an enormous step in the evolution of our company. We set out to help independent retailers grow and thrive by giving them a POS with the same back-office tools used by big retail in a user-friendly, mobile package,” said Lightspeed POS CEO Dax Dasilva. “With the industry rapidly digitizing, online-only merchant demand has grown exponentially. Bringing SEOshop into the Lightspeed family gives us additional scale, and allows us to help store owners create a global shopping experience and sell smarter- all from an iPad- no matter how their customers choose to shop.”

Lightspeed will integrate eCom with its overall Lightspeed Retail cloud-based POS solution, adding a localized, multi-lingual and multi-currency eCommerce platform to its existing suite of online retail solutions, aimed at the retail and restaurant sectors.

Lightspeed eCom also offers predictive analytics, the ability to manage inventory, and full design customization for the retailer.
With the acquisition of SEOshop, and the offering of its new eCom product, Lightspeed now claims to offer the most complete all-in-one, works-out-of-the-box, highly customizable solution currently offered to online retailers.

Backed by European VC firm henQ, SEOshop provides a Software-as-a-Service platform for businesses to set up their own online stores, integrating with European payment providers and shopping networks, such as Klarna, PayPal and Ayden.

SEOshop, which employs 80 people, has been doubling its revenue every year for the past three years, posting more than 1,000% growth from 2011 through 2014, and now services over 8,000 customers in the Benelux and German geographies, including Heineken, Philips Lighting, Grolsch, National Geographic Netherlands, and the van Gogh Museum.

SEOshop’s existing customers will now become Lightspeed eCom customers, with SEOshop CEO Ruud Stelder joining Lightspeed’s leadership team as director of global eCommerce revenue, while Chief Technology Officer Dennis Cuijpers will become Lightspeed’s director of eCommerce development and architecture.

“For a global brand, SEOshop’s robust, multilingual platform is the perfect fit for the demands of our international scope. They make it easy to manage our international presence, and we’ve always felt confident that our data— and our customers’ data— is secure,” said Philips Lighting marketing manager Michael Wantens. “As we look to grow our omnichannel presence, we’re thrilled to have access to Lightspeed’s technology and strong international reputation. With this acquisition, we are able to keep the eCommerce solution we know and trust, while gaining a strong platform for future international growth.”

In September, Lightspeed took on a $61 million US round of funding, co-led by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Investissement Québec, supported by Accel Partners and iNovia Capital, bringing Lightspeed’s total fundraising to $126 million US to date.

That hefty investment was meant to enhance Lightspeed’s already formidable footprint in Europe, which CEO Dasilva acknowledged in an interview with Cantech Letter at the time.

Before the SEOshop acquisition, Lightspeed served over 26,000 businesses processing more than $11 billion in transactions annually.

With the addition of SEOshop, Lightspeed will cater to over 34,000 businesses processing more than $12 billion in annual transactions.

Lightspeed eCom is now available in Europe and available for preview in Canada and the U.S., with full integration of eCom into Lightspeed Retail expected to launch early in 2016.