Bijou Commerce secures $2.8 million to build SaaS platform for retail industry

London-based Bijou Commerce, a business-to-business SaaS platform, has landed £2m (about $2.8 million) in seed funding.

The round drew support from Blenheim Chalcot and angel investors including Tom Singh, founder of New Look and former Google MD for UK and Ireland Dan Cobley.

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As part of the announcement. Cobley also joined the company’s board of directors. He said: “The world has gone mobile, but retailers are playing catch up. Most do not have the technical resources to deliver what they know their customers want. With Bijou they can close the gap quickly, and deliver valuable insights, higher conversion rates and happier customers.”

Launched in 2015, Bijou generates analytics to help retail businesses make real decisions on stock, buying and merchandising.

According to a statement issued by the company, Bijou Commerce will use the funds to develop its feature and product offering to clients. The company is also planning to make its platform code open source, to allow third party developers to build new functionality and sell it through a marketplace.

Tom Singh commented on the round’s closure: “Despite sales through mobile accounting for over a half of all UK online retail spend and 85% of consumers preferring mobile native apps, only 2.3% of retailers believe their business is at the cutting edge of mCommerce.

“Taking advantage of this market opportunity, Bijou Commerce can offer single image Tinder Swipe browsing, revolutionising mobile buying for users and making it more profitable for its retail partners,” he concluded.