Optoro

Optoro, Inc.
Privately held company
Industry Computer software, reverse logistics
Founder Tobin Moore, CEO; Adam Vitarello, President
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
Website http://optoro.com/

Optoro is a technology company that works with retailers and manufacturers to manage and then resell their returned and excess merchandise.[1] These products, which range from consumer electronics to home goods to clothing, are automatically listed on online marketplaces, including Amazon, eBay, Buy.com, BestBuy, and its own eCommerce website BLINQ.com. Through these channels, Optoro has access to more than 500 million customers.[2] Optoro also liquidates goods in bulk through its other proprietary website, BULQ.com.[3]

History

Optoro was founded in 2004 by Tobin "Toby" Moore as eSpot while he was a student at Brown University.[4] Moore and co-founder Adam Vitarello, now Optoro's president, opened one of the first eBay drop off stores in Washington, DC.[5] In 2008, the company became Optoro, Inc., and the pair opened an office and warehouse in Lanham, Maryland, where they process goods from retailers.[4] In September 2013, Optoro moved its corporate headquarters to a 13,000-square-foot office in downtown Chinatown, D.C.[6] In June 2016, Optoro moved again to an office space located in the Metro Center neighborhood of Washington, D.C. with double the square footage, which now holds around 160 people.[7]

Products and services

Optoro's main product is a software-as-a-service called OptiTurn, which is used in retailers' warehouses to sort, process, and resell clients' returned and excess inventory.[8] The software tracks and dispositions inventory as it flows through a warehouse until it reaches consumers.[9] Using OptiTurn, workers mark the conditions of returned products as new, open box, refurbished, or used in good condition.[10] OptiTurn analyzes this, along with other product information, to divert items to the channel that will get retailers the most money back.[11] Possible dispositions include selling directly to consumers, reselling to wholesalers, returning to vendors for repair, donating, or recycling.[4]

OptiTurn lists products with a high resale value automatically on multiple online marketplaces under the BLINQ brand, including its own eCommerce site, BLINQ.com. The software will disposition other goods that will net a higher recovery when sold in bulk to be resold under the BULQ brand on BULQ.com.[3]

Environment

In March 2015, Optoro hired a new Sustainability Director, Ann Calamai, to measure the transportation and waste impacts of the returns industry and the effects that Optoro's solution has on retailers' carbon footprints.[12]

In early 2015, Optoro joined the mayoral competition called the Smarter DC Challenge, in which companies compete for points by completing a variety of sustainability tasks.[12] In June 2015, Optoro partnered with Measurabl, a start-up that conducts sustainability audits and provides tools for measuring corporate sustainability.[13]

Financing

In July 2013, Optoro received $23.5 million in Series B funding from three primary investors: Revolution LLC, headed by former AOL executives Steve Case, Ted Leonsis, and Donn Davis; Grotech Ventures; and SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, which was co-founded by Fredrick D. Schaufeld.[2][14] Optoro was Revolution Growth's fifth investment in its "speed-ups" investment fund, which was created to support the growth of newly formed companies and to widen the audience for their products.[14]

In December 2014, Optoro closed $50 million in funding in a Series C round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, as well as Generation Investment Management, a VC company founded by Al Gore.[15] The financing from KPCB came from its Green Growth Fund.[16]

In July 2015, Optoro received $40 million in debt financing from TriplePoint Venture Growth and Square 1 Bank to support scaling its software and its consumer base.[17]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Ng, Serena; Stevens, Laura. "Where Your Unwanted Christmas Gifts Get a Second Life". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2015-12-29.
  2. 1 2 Mitchell, Billy (November 25, 2013). "Optoro Gets More Funding, Adds Board Member". DC Inno. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  3. 1 2 Tabuchi, Hiroko. "In Season of Returning, a Start-Up Tries to Find Homes for the Rejects". The New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 Mirabella, Lorraine (December 13, 2014). "Handling Holiday Returns Helps Fuel Lanham Firm". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  5. ↑ Ghiloni, Kate (September 4, 2005). "Four Task Masters to Make Life Easier". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  6. ↑ Jacob, Allyson (September 20, 2013). "Reverse Logistics Firm Optoro Opens 13,000-square-foot Office in Chinatown Today". Elevation DC. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  7. ↑ Sernovitz, Daniel J. (December 24, 2015). "Optoro to expand with move to new D.C. office space". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
  8. ↑ Lam, Bourree (December 30, 2015). "The Rise of Return-Anything Culture". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  9. ↑ Null, Christopher (December 22, 2015). "The Cure for Retailers' Holiday Returns Hangover". Rewrite. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  10. ↑ Douglas, Dianna (January 1, 2016). "Maryland Startup Redirects River Of Rejected Gifts". NPR. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  11. ↑ Li, Shan (December 25, 2015). "A growing holiday pastime: returning those unwanted gifts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  12. 1 2 Bing, Chris (March 31, 2015). "Optoro Hires Sustainability Director, Joins Mayor's Smarter DC Challenge". DC Inno. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  13. ↑ McNally, Brynn W. (July 2, 2015). "Measurabl, Optoro Partner to Pilot Improved Sustainability Data Collection". Sustainable Brands. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  14. 1 2 Grant, Rebecca (July 17, 2013). "Revolution Growth Fund Invests $23.5M in Optoro to Find Unwanted Goods A home". VentureBeat. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  15. ↑ Shieber, Jonathan (December 9, 2014). "Turning Unwanted Goods Into New Sales, Optoro Raises $50 Million". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  16. ↑ Field, Anne (December 14, 2014). "Social Enterprise Optoro Raises $50M In Round Led By Kleiner Perkins". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  17. ↑ Jayakumar, Amrita (July 28, 2015). "Optoro Picks up $40 Million in Debt Financing". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Technology Fast 500" (PDF). Deloitte. Deloitte. November 14, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Deloitte's 2014 Technology Fast 500" (PDF). Deloitte. Deloitte. December 11, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  20. ↑ "Deloitte's 2015 Technology Fast 500 Ranking" (PDF). Deloitte. Deloitte. November 13, 2015. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Disruptor 50: No. 38 Optoro". CNBC Disruptor 50. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  22. ↑ Bousquet, Chris (June 19, 2015). "Optoro Co-Founders Win 2015 EY Entrepreneur Awards For Business Growth". DC Inno. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  23. ↑ Dumaine, Brian (January 19, 2016). "Winners of the Circulars Awards Announced at Davos". Fortune. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
  24. ↑ "Deloitte's 2015 Technology Fast 500 Ranking" (PDF). Deloitte. Deloitte. November 16, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
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