Chord

The startup, previously known as Arfa, was founded by a pair of former executives from hugely successful D2C beauty products brand Glossier, and has made a strong start since launching in 2019, gaining some high profile customers like August, Caraway, and Another Tomorrow.

Where Chord sees itself as different from most headless commerce platforms is the depth of its customer data infrastructure. It offers a single analytical and visualization layer from data gathered across the entire platform – something that the company has been able to double down on since acquiring eCommerce data startup Yaguara in 2021.

In 2023, the company secured an extension to its Series A funding, that will enable it to expand its data capabilities and support the product’s availability to larger customers. Interestingly, though Chord may have been expected to go for a classic Series B, it has been open in admitting it "wasn't quite there yet", but pursued funding nonetheless to capitalize on the good traction it was experiencing.