ReturnLogic raised an $8.5M Series A as online sales soar

What exactly happens to that pair of jeans you ordered online that doesn’t fit just right?

After dropping your return package off at FedEx, you’d likely not think about it again until the refund hits your bank account. SaaS company ReturnLogic thinks about everything that happens in between — and it raised a $8.5 million Series A to continue growing this year.

The 2014-founded company — which names Philadelphia as its home but lists a Camp Hill address — is the maker of a platform that organizes return workflows and operations for ecommerce retailers. The Series A will go toward doubling its workforce, further product development, and expanding its API capabilities with new ecommerce platforms “beyond Shopify.” The round was led by Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Mercury with participation from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Fund, York, Pennsylvania’s White Rose Ventures and Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

ReturnLogic’s team is currently at 34, with 14 employees in Philly, CEO and founder Peter Sobotta told Technical.ly via email after this story was published.

Why was now a good time to raise?

“As we are seeing additional pressure on retailers with a possible recession, returns is an area where a dollar saved goes directly to the bottom line,” Sobotta said. “For this reason, we are already seeing strong interest in our API approach as retailers often struggle to connect their back end tech stack to their reverse logistics operations. Hence our vision is to be the operating system of returns.”

While ecommerce was on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic, the spread of the virus pushed more and more people to buy online. In 2020, the pandemic added $102.08 billion in ecommerce sales and $116.45 billion in 2021.

Retailers have largely gotten the sales side of ecommerce down, said Blair Garrou, managing director of Mercury. But they tend to struggle with the resource-draining aspect of returns, which ultimately strains a brand’s profits. ReturnLogic currently works with a range of small and large ecommerce brands and handles third-party warranty returns for large retailers including Walmart, Amazon and Best Buy.

“ReturnLogic is something entirely new to this market and uniquely built on Peter Sobotta’s deep operational experience in reverse logistics and supply chain management,” Garrou said in a statement.