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Bonsai

E-commerce technology for content publishers

Bonsai logo
21-100 employees
  • Retail
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Content
  • eCommerce
Old Town, Toronto, ON

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Company mission

Bonsai’s mission is to transform the world’s most trusted content into its most trusted stores

Our take

The explosion of online buying and selling has led to an overwhelming number of e-commerce platforms for buyers. Sometimes consumers just want to buy what they see, where they see it - rather than shuffle between Amazon, Ebay and Alibaba, amongst others. This is where integrated shopping solutions come in. They allow users to buy what they like without having to switch platforms. Bonsai is one of such platforms

Bonsai allows content publishers to sell products right within their published content, providing both publisher-merchants and their customers unprecedented ease of use. Their product offering uniquely takes advantage of the trust between the content publishers and the consumer audience. The success of this model has secured them large partnerships with which to build a more robust offering

Having pivoted from being a streetwear style app, their partnerships still lie strongly within youth and style. Their major partnerships will be with big online publishing organisations and merchants. They have raised only enough funding to help them replicate the model within a wider North-American market

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Kirsty

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Benefits

  • Office: Snacks, coffee, and drinks to keep you fuelled throughout the day. Dog friendly space - feel free to bring your furry friend!
  • Unlimited time off: Take time as you need it - unlimited vacation days, sick days, mental health days, and personal days
  • Fun!: Biweekly company socials (trivia nights, cooking classes, and much more), coffee meetups, book club, and team lunches
  • Lunch and learns: Hosted by internal folks or guest speakers, lunch and learns are a chance for the team to get together and learn something new
  • Health and wellness: $100/month fitness and home office budget, plus team stretches every Tuesday and Thursday morning
  • Stock options: We believe that our success is your success - stock options are available for all full-time employees and include merit-based increases
  • Full benefits package: Health, dental, vision, and an employee assistance program covered at 100%. Double allowances for mental health, and an overflow HSA
  • Learning and development: $1000/year learning and development budget to use for conferences, courses, subscriptions and more
  • Remote work: We provide you with equipment and resources for you to remain connected, productive, and comfortable while working remotely

Company values

  • Unrelenting passion: We LOVE people who are passionate about what they do, both professionally and recreationally.
  • Curiosity: Ask lots and lots of questions! Always question the ‘why’ behind something
  • Empathy: Taking the time to understand our partners, our users, and each other often leads to remarkable outcomes.
  • Team-first attitude: Bonsai is a highly collaborative environment and a lot of our projects require teamwork across the entire organization.
  • Constructive feedback: Feedback is vital for your ongoing personal and professional development. Feedback clarifies expectations, helps you learn from your mistakes, and helps build your confidence
  • Ability to learn quickly: Whether you got your first coding gig in middle school, recreationally fly planes, teach dance, are a puzzle master, or are currently learning a new language, learning is part of who we are.

Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)

Mar 2022

$10.4m

SERIES A

Jan 2020

$2.9m

EARLY VC

Total funding: $20.4m

Leadership

Justin Laird

(Co-founder)

Co-founded Bonsai as COO while in University. Moved on to become a QA analyst at Morneau Shepell and now works in Partnerships at Firstline.

Kunal Khemani

(Co-founder)

Moved on from Bonsai in 2018 to Sales Management at Zensurance, now working on a startup venture as co-founder

Saad Siddiqui

(Co-founder & CEO)

Co-founded Bonsai and has run it as CEO since.