Luxembourg-headquartered e-commerce platform MarketLeap, formerly Gonuggets, is the first complete AI-enabled operating system for digitally native brands. Now, it has secured an additional €1.5 million in seed funding. With this, the total funding secured in the seed round accounts for €2.6 million.
The investment came from Notion Capital known for investing in Orus, Kima Ventures that backed Fairlyne, Trezy and Finres, and Motier Ventures. Also, existing investors, including Luxembourg’s Expon Capital joined the round.
Plans to tap into the US market
MarketLeap will use the fresh funds to accelerate the operating system’s technical development, including the addition of new service offerings, and to facilitate expansion into the US while scaling UK operations.
“Currently, most brands reach only 0.2% of their total marketplace potential due to a lack of expertise, time, and money. They end up spending over 70% of their time managing their marketplace operations, accounting for less than 20% of their total revenue,” explains Mamoun Benkirane, CEO and Co-founder of MarketLeap. “MarketLeap helps brands break through their revenue ceilings on e-commerce marketplaces. We make marketplaces the easiest sales channel for brands, with no time, effort, or capital required, allowing them to focus on what they are the most passionate about, building and sourcing their products.”
“The e-commerce landscape is evolving rapidly, and online marketplaces are becoming the established backbone for many of the largest online retailers. The skilled and experienced founding team immediately made MarketLeap’s potential and differentiation clear in this noisy field. MarketLeap is pioneering the way brands expand globally, compete effectively, and access hidden demand. We are honored to back them and support their continued journey ahead,” added Owen Reynolds, Venture Partner at Expon Capital.
“Our platform is integrated with several partners, including 3PLs and finance service providers to manage all the operational complexities while continuously supporting our partner brands as they scale up. MarketLeap holds brands’ inventory in its fully outsourced supply-chain network while offering better payment terms than marketplaces. The company uniquely invests in partner brands, contributes to marketing expenses, optimizes listings, and supports various other initiatives,” explained COO and Co-founder Mekki Mouaddeb.
AI-enabled e-commerce operating system
MarketLeap was founded as Gonuggets in 2022 by Mamoun Benkirane and Mekki Mouaddeb, former employees of e-commerce giants Amazon and Jumia. The duo also developed a successful e-commerce fashion marketplace that was sold to a network company of the world’s largest fashion retailer.
Now, the rebranded MarketLeap aims to democratise e-commerce, allowing brands to unlock their potential reach and revenues and immediately launch across new marketplaces worldwide. It aims to disrupt the industry the same way that Amazon did in the retail landscape.
It is the first AI-enabled e-commerce operating system that enables digitally native brands to scale their businesses across fragmented e-commerce channels easily and efficiently. By simplifying the challenges of selling on global e-commerce marketplaces, MarketLeap helps brands make marketplace expansion effortless, risk-free, and profitable from day one.
What challenge does it tackle?
Finding the right product-market fit in new markets can be very challenging for brands. Furthermore, brands often struggle when investing in new markets, and may be hesitant to do so because it’s difficult to predict the potential results.
With its unique platform developed in-house, MarketLeap aims to offer its clients improved capital efficiency and the ability to reach new markets more efficiently than before, with significantly less risk and greater predictability. Currently, it has helped brands sell on marketplaces across over 30 countries and is continually expanding into new channels and locations.
Wide range of clientele
MarketLeap has a diverse range of customers, including Danish watchmaker Nordgreen, Swedish audio product manufacturer Defunc, British collagen producer Edible Health, and Germany’s Guggenheimer Coffee, which experienced a tenfold increase in sales revenue within just six months. Notably, their products are best-sellers in their target markets.
“Partnering with MarketLeap is a significant milestone for us at Edible Health. It opens up tremendous opportunities for us to reach a wider audience and make a greater impact,” said Jessika Nilsson, COO at Edible Health. “We really appreciate MarketLeap’s tech-first approach to e-commerce, and the result has helped us offer our products to global audiences with almost no extra effort.”
