Shopify gets shopping and acquires Select Start Studios
Shopify announced this morning that it acquired award-winning Select Start Studios Inc. (S3), also based in Ottawa.
This strategic acquisition will allow the ecommerce software company to rapidly execute on their mobile growth strategy, and is the first major investment since raising $15 million in Series B funding in October 2011.
“After seeing a massive increase in mobile transactions at Shopify, we believe there is great demand and opportunity for mcommerce,” 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.”
Tobias Lütke, founder and CEO of Shopify, 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. Over 2,000 of Shopify’s stores are based in Canada. Individuals, entrepreneurs, and businesses use the SaaS ecommerce platform to create and power their online stores. Shopify is known for its ease of use, beautiful store designs, and scalability.
S3 will be joining Shopify in their new 17,000 sq ft headquarters in Ottawa’s ByWard Market.
