OTTAWA, ONTARIO — Feb. 1, 2012— Shopify, the leading ecommerce platform used to create and power online stores, today announced that it acquired award-winning mobile company Select Start Studios Inc. (“S3”). This strategic acquisition will allow the company to rapidly expand their mobile growth strategy, and is the first major investment since receiving $15 million in Series B funding, on October 17, 2011.
Tobias Lütke, Shopify’s founder and CEO, launched the company in 2004 with the goal of redefining how people build online stores. Today, the ecommerce platform has over 20,000 active online stores in 80 different countries. Individuals, entrepreneurs, and businesses use Shopify to create and power their online stores. Shopify is known for its focus on ease of use, beautiful store designs, and scalability.
“It’s long been said that the future of ecommerce is both social and mobile. After seeing a massive increase in mobile transactions at Shopify, we believe the future is now and the mcommerce revolution is well underway,” said Lütke. “The S3 acquisition brings in top talent that will rapidly deliver on our mobile strategy, and produce several new mobile product offerings this year.”
Tariq Zaid, co-founder and CEO of S3, will be joining Shopify with his team of over 20 mobile engineers and designers. “We’re thrilled to be joining Shopify to execute on the company’s mobile initiative,” said Zaid. “Their focus on mobile, deep understanding of technology, and overall culture make this a natural fit. We’re already cooking up some really exciting innovations that show just how game changing mcommerce will be.”
All Shopify stores already include mobile optimized storefronts and checkouts, and an app that allows merchants to manage their entire online store from their mobile device. The acquisition of S3 will allow Shopify to continue providing merchants with an expansive and evolving mobile offering.
Angry Birds is one of Shopify’s most well known brands that is fully utilizing the company’s mobile offering. A sizable portion of Angry Birds sales are made through a mobile device. “We looked at a number of different ecommerce options, but Shopify made the most sense,” said Niklas Kari, Rovio’s Head of Retail, “We had strong recommendations from other partners, and setting up the store was easy.”
To learn more about Shopify, please visit www.shopify.com