Insurer-Backed Returnly Raises $19M

Returnly , the post-purchase payments company that gives brands and retailers a competitive advantage, has announced that it raised a $19m Series B investment. The round was led by Craft Ventures, the venture capital fund co-founded by serial entrepreneur David Sacks, with participation from Max Levchin’s Affirm, and existing investors. The company will use this new financing to give thousands of retailers a leg up against Amazon.

The news follows the company’s $8m Series A round announced earlier this year from several investors, including Alma Mundi Insurtech Fund, a relatively new VC in which MAPFRE is an anchor investor.

Returnly partners with retailers and brands to remove product returns friction altogether. Returnly lets shoppers buy again using return credit before shipping the original items back and settles the new order in real-time, taking the product returns risk. The company has developed a turn-key solution for large scale retailers as well as hosted and fully brandable end-customer touchpoints like order and returns tracking, online returns and exchanges.

Bottom Line: Online sales in the US are growing at 15% year-over-year and will surpass $600b in 2019, according to eMarketer. While return rates vary depending upon product types, 25-30% of online purchases are returned on average, nearly three times higher than offline purchases.