Former Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla’s startup triples to $100M valuation

Seattle: Spangle is an AI e-commerce startup by Maju Kuruvilla, the former CEO of Bolt. The company recently raised $15 million and is now valued at $100 million. NewRoad Capital Partners led the Series A funding round. This comes after Spangle previously raised $6 million at a $30 million valuation last year.

Shoppers are changing how they find products online. AI tools and social media play big roles in this. Kuruvilla designed Spangle to help retailers offer personalized shopping experiences. It uses real-time AI suggestions to help customers navigate their websites.

Since launching in March last year, Spangle has gained nine big customers, including Revolve and Alexander Wang. These companies have a total online sales of about $3.8 billion. Spangle’s user traffic has grown by 57% each month. The company also says it has quadrupled its yearly earnings in the last quarter.

Spangle’s unique idea is to send shoppers to a blank page instead of a standard product page. The AI called ProductGPT fills this page live, based on visitor behavior and previous searches. This makes recommendations very relevant to the shopper.

Brands using Spangle are seeing big results. Kuruvilla shared that they are getting nearly 50% more revenue from each visit and double the returns on ad spend. Retailers are noticing a 60% improvement in ad spending returns too.

Before starting Spangle in 2024, Kuruvilla was CEO at Bolt and worked at Amazon for over ten years. He teamed up with CTO Fei Wang, who also worked at Amazon. Both leaders’ past experiences focus Spangle on building strong e-commerce systems rather than just fixes.

Spangle fits with a trend where AI tools help shoppers find and compare products. Kuruvilla believes brands need software that adjusts to both human users and AI tools.

He noted that Spangle is now possible due to three shifts: consumers using AI tools to shop, more ways to discover products, and improved AI tech. This makes adapting to shopping behaviors easier.

Spangle currently has six employees, showing that AI can help startups grow software with small teams. With new funding, the company plans to boost research, expand its engineering team, and enhance sales.