What the business is
Foundation is wholesale e-commerce software connecting manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers to share product, pricing and inventory data.
The bet
That B2B wholesale — an afterthought for D2C platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce — is big enough to be a platform's entire purpose.
Starting capital
$3M seed from Founders' Co-op, Ascend VC, Fortson VC and Upside VC.
How it started
Shiv Agarwal — previously at Intel, eBay and Staples, and CEO of Fabric — left Fabric in 2020 and founded Foundation in 2022 to focus solely on B2B transactions.
What happened
It launched into a crowded field: Shopify, BigCommerce and Fabric offer wholesale support, and Faire's marketplace raised more than $800M at a $12.6B valuation. Agarwal argues marketplaces 'significantly reduce profit margins and increase competition for the brand,' so Foundation stays a tool, not a venue.
What has to be true
The pandemic made digital sales channels the norm for B2B businesses, exposing how much wholesale still runs on manual catalogs and order forms.
Retailers increasingly want user-friendly self-service options, and staffing traditional B2B sales teams is getting harder.
Agarwal's vantage point is his old job: he ran Fabric, a $1.5B-valued e-commerce platform, and saw wholesale treated as a side feature there.
What can be applied
Build for the market the category leaders treat as an afterthought — wholesale deserved a platform whose whole purpose it is, not a feature tab.
Aftermath
As of the May 1, 2023 announcement, the $3M seed was to fuel growth of the platform and its 11-person team; potential customers include distributors of pet supplies and beauty brands selling to small boutique stores.
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