Stamped, a Singapore-based startup known for software that lets online sellers implement loyalty programs and manage customer reviews, will be acquired for up to US$110 million by WeCommerce, a listed Canadian company worth over US$700 million that owns a number of Shopify-related services and software.
The deal was announced in a WeCommerce press release.
Once the transaction closes, US$75 million will be payable with cash. Another US$25 million will be disbursed by the first quarter of 2022 if revenue targets are met.
WeCommerce, which has secured a loan of up to US$77 million for this acquisition, will also distribute another US$10 million worth of its shares to buy Stamped.
Since launching in 2016, Stamped has reached around US$11 million in annualized recurring subscription revenue as of end-2020. This represents an estimated doubling of revenue compared to 2019, with “minimal spend on customer acquisition,” according to WeCommerce.
Stamped was established by Tommy Ong, described in the Shopify blog as a Singaporean techie. By the age of 25, he had already started three internet businesses.
After selling his first two companies, Ong found an opportunity that couldn’t be ignored: online merchants struggling with getting consumers to trust their site. So in two days, he programmed the first version of Stamped – a software that made it easy for sellers to collect and post customer reviews on their websites.
At the time, competing apps could cost thousands of dollars and were difficult to set up.
Stamped took off, and within its first full year of operations, it surpassed US$700,000 in revenue.
By 2019, it was hitting seven to 10 times that figure.
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