Handshake Closes $8 Million in Series A Funding to Expand Sales Order Management Platform and Service Capabilities

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Mar 31, 2014) - Handshake, the leading sales order management platform for wholesalers, today announces it has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by new investor Emergence Capital Partners. Joined by seed-round investors, SoftTech VC, MHS Capital, High Peaks Venture Partners, Handshake is poised to expand its mobile-first sales platform with B2B eCommerce, delivering a holistic solution for brands selling to retailers.

Handshake's mobile application has been widely adopted by wholesalers looking to move away from antiquated order methods, such as handwritten order pads, Excel spreadsheets and clunky handhelds. Customers including Bugaboo, Roland, Skip Hop, and Silhouette have enhanced the performance of their field sales teams through mobile-based order management that is integrated with back office order systems. Wholesale sales reps can use Handshake's tablet application to write orders while in the store and at trade shows, benefitting from up-to-date inventory data and prior sales history, while also saving weeks of error-prone back-and-forth on email and fax. The Series A round will be used to expand platform capabilities in eCommerce, moving Handshake beyond a mobile application into an omni-channel commerce platform with a comprehensive service offering. This includes 24/7 customer support, implementation consulting and customer success programs.

"Through my time in the trenches of wholesale distribution and the trade show circuit, I recognized that the traditional sales order management technology was falling short, literally decades behind consumer equivalents, and that mobile was the key to re-inventing wholesale sales & operations. Currently, there is nothing on the market that offers what we can, and brands are taking notice," said Handshake CEO, Glen Coates. "Our customers have already seen incredible increases in both operational efficiency and average order values (anywhere from 37% to 100%), indicating that ordering efficiency can actually boost revenue if the workflows are right. Wholesale is different and needs dedicated solutions built by people who have done the job and understand it. Given the success of our mobile offering, we see a huge opportunity to further our commitment to wholesale through eCommerce, to better service our existing clients, and appeal to an even broader range of brands."

Kevin Spain, general partner at Emergence Capital, is leading the investment in Handshake. Since 2003, Emergence Capital's portfolio has been focused on business cloud and, in recent years, has expanded to include mobile business applications. Emergence believes the expansion of the platform and services at Handshake will fill a need for a market that is starving for this mobile ordering technology that is tied to inventory management and, eventually, CRM and eCommerce.

"The demand for mobile-based B2B order management technology has hit an inflection point," said Kevin Spain, general partner at Emergence Capital. "Companies now expect their systems to be simple and intuitive like consumer-focused applications, and they also expect the service and support that goes along with it. We've been tracking Handshake since its inception in 2010 and believe that this is the perfect time to accelerate growth in both platform and services capabilities."

About Handshake

Founded in 2010, Handshake is the leading sales order management platform for wholesale, providing mobile apps for field sales and B2B eCommerce solutions to brands. Headquartered in New York City, Handshake's technology enables wholesale brands to offer a modern sales experience, sell more products using customer data, speed up order fulfillment times and eliminate human error from the sales process. Handshake is backed by Emergence Capital, SoftTech VC, MHS Capital, High Peaks Venture Partners, BOLDstart Ventures and Point Nine Capital.