The Foundation team. (Foundation Photo)

Shiv Agarwal is taking another startup swing in the B2B e-commerce arena.

The former Staples exec and co-founder of Fabric is now leading Foundation, a Seattle startup that just announced a $3 million seed round to fuel growth of its wholesale e-commerce platform.

Foundation aims to streamline B2B sales and replace PDF product catalogs and convoluted Excel order forms that traditionally facilitate transactions.

The 11-person startup connects manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, helping each stakeholder share product, pricing, and inventory information.

Foundation helps sales teams order products, submit status inquiries, and assist with onboarding new wholesale customers.

Shiv Agarwal. (LinkedIn Photo)

The platform also consolidates orders from multiple channels in a single platform, connecting with third-party logistics platforms and accounting systems to reduce the time it takes to fulfill orders.

Potential customers include distributors of pet supplies or beauty brands selling to small boutique stores.

Agarwal was CEO of Fabric, a Seattle startup that sells software, APIs, and other e-commerce technology used by retailers and business-to-business brands. Last year, the company raised $140 million at a $1.5 billion valuation.

Agarwal, who was previously at Intel and eBay, left Fabric in 2020 and founded Foundation last year.

Foundation is jumping into a crowded market of companies offering online tech solutions to assist in B2B transactions. There are large competitors like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Fabric that offer wholesale support. Agarwal said Foundation differentiates by being focused solely on B2B transactions, while other platforms offer a range of solutions.

“For these D2C platforms, wholesale B2B is an afterthought,” he said. “For us, it is our core driving purpose.”

There’s also Faire, an online wholesale marketplace that raised more than $800 million and was last valued at $12.6 billion. Although marketplaces provide a venue to attract new customers, Agarwal said they can “significantly reduce profit margins and increase competition for the brand.”

The pandemic pushed many B2B businesses to adopt digital sales channels, helping them realize that digital interactions are more cost-effective and efficient, Agarwal said. At the same time, retailers sought user-friendly self-service options due to limited physical interactions, he said.

The changing workforce has made it difficult to hire for traditional B2B selling, leading to a need for self-serve buying experiences in businesses of all sizes, Agarwal said.

The round included participation from Founders’ Co-op, Ascend VC, Fortson VC and San Francisco-based Upside VC.

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