I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found Black Friday to be a little scary.
And not necessarily in the fun Halloween way, either. Perhaps it’s because stories (and urban myths) from the early 2000s about shoppers getting trampled in big-box stores are ingrained in my consciousness. (There’s also almost no discount big enough for me to subject myself to a stadium concert-like crush of humanity.)
But it’s always also occurred to me that brands and retailers are probably far more scared of Black Friday (and its cousin, Cyber Monday) than I ever could be. It’s the ultimate double-edged sword, like a class in college where most of your grade is one test: Black Friday accounts for notable portions of retailers’ annual revenues, and sends the holiday shopping season into full-gear.
Yiqi Wu, founder and CEO at e-commerce-focused customer intelligence startup Aimerce, says this Black Friday is shaping up to be cutthroat from her vantage point.
“I think this year is extremely competitive, because everybody is launching their campaigns a lot earlier than they were last year,” Wu told Fortune. “If you look at the times when campaigns were launching last year, it was around the beginning of November. This year, it was late October. It was already Black Friday in October.”
It’s Wu’s first Black Friday as founder of Upfront Ventures-backed Aimerce, which she started in 2023 and whose customers include shoe retailer Vivaia, spices company Evermill, and Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint. So, though she has lots of data to turn to, this is her first year watching the madness in real-time.
Wu’s been surprised by the last-minute changes she’s seen brands make to their campaigns, reflecting just how serious the Black Friday scramble gets as retailers try to “squeeze out as much as they can” from the holiday season. In some sense, it’s always been like this, because the Black Friday stakes are just so high.
“If you don’t have the basics checked in terms of how your website operates, and how you can best communicate and know your customer on any given day, you’re kind of done,” said Upfront Ventures general partner Kobie Fuller, who years ago was the CMO of e-commerce fashion juggernaut Revolve. On Black Friday, “if you don’t have your stuff together, it’s a significant potential negative moment for you in terms of loss of sales.”
E-commerce enablement has had its ups and downs as a sector, particularly in terms of VC backing—in 2022, the space fell out of favor, but by this year has seen some recovery. But Black Friday is an opportunity for enterprising startups, now and always.
“This month has been my fastest-growth month ever since I launched product,” said Wu. “It’s because I solve a very hair-on-fire problem for people.”
See you Monday,
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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VENTURE DEALS
- eyewa, a Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based eyewear retailer, raised $100 million in Series C funding. General Atlantic led the round and was joined by Badwa Capital and Turmeric Capital.
- Raidium, a Paris-based precision radiology company, raised €16 million ($16.9 million) in seed funding. Newfund and Kurma Partners led the round and were joined by Founders Future, Galion.exe, Techmind, and others.
- Movopack, a Milan-based sustainable packaging provider for e-commerce platforms, raised £2 million ($2.5 million) in seed funding. 360 Capital led the round and was joined by Greiner Innoventures and Techstars.
- Arok VC, an internet-based AI agent-run venture capital fund, raised $1 million in funding from Samuel Muir and others.
- VEX acquired a 70% stake in Kaptio, a Kópavogur, Iceland-based multi-day travel reservation technology solutions provider, and was joined by Birgir Ragnarsson, Björn Karlsson, Jóhann Ólafur Jónsson, and others.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- BGF invested £6 million ($7.6 million) in Miracle Design & Play, a Northampton, England-based playground designer and installer.
- Jones Lake Management, backed by Fort Point Capital, acquired Aquatic Management, a Bluffton, Ind.-based pond and lake management services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- JD Sports Fashion acquired Courir, a Paris-based sneaker retailer, from Equistone Partners Europe for €520 million ($549 million).
- Nihon Kohden acquired a 71.4% stake in Ad-Tech, an Oak Creek, Wis.-based electrode medical devices developer, from ARCHIMED, which earned 5 times its investment and retains a 28.6% stake in Ad-Tech. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Wind Point Partners acquired Velocity Rail Solutions, a Draper, Utah-based locomotive fueling services provider, from A. Stucki, a portfolio company of Stellex Capital Management. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
- Pony AI, a Guangzhou, China-based autonomous vehicle systems developer, raised $260 million in an offering of 20 million American depositary shares priced at $13 on the Nasdaq. The company posted $84 million in revenue for the year ending June 30, 2024. Dr. Jun Peng, Toyota Motor Corporation, HongShan, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Dr. Tiancheng Lou, IDG, and 5Y Capital back the company.
