Mysterious e-commerce startup Sellvana announces $5M seed round, then clams up

Sellvana, a mysterious e-commerce software developer, closed a $5 million seed round from unnamed investors in New York Wednesday.

With its website promising “soon you will enjoy e-commerce,” details of the funding, the investors behind it, and the customers beta-testing the software, were scant. And that’s the way Sellvana chief financial officer Felix Machlis, 38, wants it.

At least for now.

“We see an opportunity for a better-performing e-commerce platform,” Machlis told VentureBeat. “There is a revolution in e-commerce open-source software. Sellvana is easy to use, and learn.”

Some of the facts: Sellvana is a six-person team based in Portland, Ore. Cofounder Boris Gurvich, a native of Belarus, cut his teeth writing PHP open-source code for Magento, an e-commerce platform provider owned by eBay. Sellvana launched in 2013. It is targeting small and medium-sized e-commerce companies. It is not in stealth mode.

As for Machlis, he’s done stints at Goldman Sachs and financial service giant TIAA-CREF. He’s in charge of marketing the company and growing it. But it’s Gurvich, 38, who is the public face of the startup.

The duo admitted the e-commerce software space was crowded — eBay and Amazon for example — but said current platforms lack the functionality and usability both developers and consumers crave.

The two men insisted a host of mid-range e-commerce sites are already successfully running the software. Monetizing open-source software is not one of their goals. And all the details will emerge in the coming months, Machlis promised.

“Based on our core properties, our simplicity of use for developers, consumers and merchants, we are well positioned,” Machlis said.