PeakSpan’s Thesis for Sales Layer | PeakSpan Perspectives
PeakSpan’s Thesis for Sales Layer
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June 21, 2022
PeakSpan is thrilled to be sharing our leading Sales Layer’s Series B financing. With this capital, we intend to grow product and sales resources with a particular focus on entering the US market. Sales Layer is a global business with a world class team with current headquarters in Valencia, Spain.
We have been tracking the product information management space for several years at PeakSpan, including speaking with the Sales Layer team for over a year prior to leading the Company’s Series B financing in May of 2022. We’ve witnessed the market demand pull for PIM intensify as E-Commerce volumes skyrocket and perhaps more importantly — due to the explosion of SKUs, rich product information and selling channels. Check out Birkenstock for example. For what used to be a very simple sandal listing, we now have 12 size categories for each of women, men and kids.
Birkenstock also offers regular/wide and medium/narrow foot styles. Further, you can order your sandals in tobacco brown, habana, black, blue, dusty blue, etc. Not only can you order these options, but you are able to view the sandal in all of these colors both on a standalone basis or shown on a model AND in a video (and in some cases with AR/VR). Taking into account the different styles of sandals, the gender, the sizes and the colors — we roughly calculate 174,960 variations — each with a specific product landing page with dozens of photos, videos and rich product information. This is the PIM market opportunity. The data is only getting richer and more complex as our society moves from one of mass production to mass customization. To further underscore the importance of product information — Birkenstock sandals are also sold on Amazon, Zappos, Famous Footwear and several other online retailers. It only takes a few minutes of perusing these websites to observe the immense levels product data. Modern PIM platforms help manufacturers and brands such as Birkenstock manage product information consistently across all sales channels, allowing teams to update the information in a single location and push out updates to all endpoints.
The B2B Opportunity
What we love about Sales Layer is that they are not going after the Birkenstock market. Plot twist!? Sales Layer has emerged through our research as having a clear opportunity to dominate the B2B PIM space. Conceptionally, when we talk about “B2B” businesses, consider the volume of products being manufactured and how those products make it into the hands of the end-consumer. Some products are manufactured and sold directly where the brand is selling the product (this is the B2C (Birkenstock) opportunity that Salsify attacks). However, the vast preponderance of manufacturers sell to distributors, wholesalers and retailers (this engagement, between manufacturer and retailer, is the B2B opportunity). Further, Sales Layer is able to sell into wholesalers and distributors who also sell into the retailer. In summary, Sales Layer’s ICP is B2B SMEs (built up by manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors). Regardless of the type of customer — our strong view having spent ample time in B2B purchasing is that the process is rarely digital and generally pursued via static product catalogues, phones calls, etc. despite having the same product complexity outlined above with Birkenstock which highlights the opportunity we see for Sales Layer and why we think B2B is just as big an opportunity as B2C but with far less penetration.
Below is PeakSpan’s thesis for Sales Layer:
Investment Thesis
The Product Information Management space represents an increasingly strategic but long-overlooked category of the broader commerce supply chain. In addition to explosive E-Commerce volumes, we have seen product and syndication complexity skyrocket due to the ever-growing number of SKUs, online storefronts, and sales channels. To successfully sell from a diverse product catalogue concurrently at scale, it’s essential to pull and syndicate product data from a central point and single source of truth to ensure brand consistency, product experience and order accuracy for the end purchaser. Further, cross-functional group and cross-geography collaboration around product information and near-impossible without a cloud-based system of record. PIM adoption has historically lagged behind similar systems of record — ERP and CRM (PIM is estimated at ~25% penetration in the US versus ERP/CRM at ~75%+) but is poised for growth in the coming years, estimated to grow at a 25%+ CAGR as companies continue to digitize online storefront and supply chain operations. Historical PIM providers were born well before the E-Commerce era and are not datacentric/extensible, nor are they easy to use/implement for a non-technical user. The most successful PIMs in market (Salsify and Akeneo) do best upmarket where enterprises have robust IT teams and are willing to spend on implementation. Sales Layer’s position is unique in the mid-market and where the Company’s ease-of-use and rapid time-to-value have unlocked a tremendous opportunity. Further to the uniqueness of the solution, Sales Layer knows its ICP cold and has architected a solution with high effectiveness serving manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors selling across both B2C and B2B channels. Sales Layer’s B2B value proposition and focus is especially powerful — digitizing a previously highly manual process via a distinct product suite with powerful integration capabilities. Sales Layer represents a differentiated platform with product-leadership potential in a highly strategic and fast-growing market with ample greenfield opportunity available to the business. With continued execution, Sales Layer has a path to product and segment leadership within the B2B E-Commerce and supply chain arena.
Key Market Drivers
PIM Adoption and Penetration
- PIM market estimated to reach $59B by 2025, growing at a 25% CAGR
- US PIM Market Penetration: 23% (relative to: CRM: 74%, ERP: 78%)
- PIM CAGR: 25% (relative to CRM: 11%, ERP: 9%)
E-Commerce Momentum Continues
- E-Commerce accounts for 20% over global retail sales
- Expected to grow by over $500B between 2022 and 2023
B2B E-Commerce Momentum is Robust
- B2B E-Commerce market value expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.5% to $20.9T by 2027
- 36% of B2B companies expect an increase of up to 75% in online sales from B2B buyers
Channel Proliferation
- Supporting omnichannel commerce is cited by a key priority for senior stakeholders (Forrester)
- 83% of B2B leaders believe that omnichannel is a more successful way to prospect new business
Product Complexity
- Product complexity and number of SKUs continues to rise, mirroring more complex consumer expectations
Sustainable Commerce
- Increased demand more sustainable business practices, which starts with transparency in product data
- 90% of public companies announced carbon neutrality by 2040
Supplier Digitization
- 19% of enterprises are at an “advanced” digital maturity, compared to just 15% in 2019
- 22% of companies in a survey said that 75%+ of their purchases (including from suppliers) occur online10
- Sales Layer’s procurement use case reduces supplier product onboarding from months to hours
The Amazon Effect
- For brands to effectively compete with Amazon, they will need to adopt best-in-breed E-Commerce/logistics
- See here for PeakSpan’s thesis for E-Commerce Logistics ( link)
Globalization
- The global shift to online has created increasingly diverse customer bases for today’s businesses
- Language-specific product information is becoming table-stakes
Supply Chain Connectivity
- Data-sharing in supply chain connectivity was the most used feature among respondents in a recent survey
- 58% of respondents are using / piloting a data-sharing platform to unite fragmented ecosystems
About Jack Freeman
Jack has worked with growth-stage technology businesses his whole career and has partnered with over 25 portfolio companies at PeakSpan. He currently leads PeakSpan’s FinTech and Supply Chain investment themes. Jack was named to GrowthCap’s Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors List in 2025. Prior to joining PeakSpan, Jack worked at Stackpop, an early-stage startup, where he helped build a SaaS spend management platform that enabled CTOs and IT teams to buy and manage internet infrastructure. After Stackpop was disrupted by AWS, Jack joined Macquarie Capital, where he spent three years executing software M&A and capital markets transactions for technology businesses.
Jack holds a B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College. Prior to Middlebury, he played Division I soccer at Seton Hall University and for the New York Red Bulls U-23 team. Jack lives in Larchmont, NY, with his wife and two dogs, Willow and Leeuwen. Once a year, Jack captains a team in a charity bike ride to the Hamptons to support his brother’s autism program, Quest, where he has raised over $100K. Since retiring from collegiate soccer, Jack has become an avid endurance athlete, completing five of the “Big Six” World Marathon Majors (London remaining), an Ironman, and a 50-mile ultramarathon. He is currently focused on improving his marathon time from 2:32:30 to sub-2:30.
About Phil Dur
Phil has been a software investor for over 25 years and has served on the boards of over 40 growth stage companies in his career. Before co-founding PeakSpan, Phil worked at Investor Growth Capital for 10 years as a leader in the software investment team. Prior to joining IGC, Phil also worked at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners (the firm’s expansion and growth stage fund) as part of the technology investment team and started his career at Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (the firm’s private equity fund), focusing on, among other things, investments in software and other technology areas.
Phil is a graduate of Princeton University and the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and also served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve for seven years. Phil enjoys cooking (trained by the Peter Kump School and L’Escoffier de Gastronomie but still a very humble student), tennis, running, and spending time with his wife and 2 children enjoying everything Northern California has to offer.
About Kyle Reitinger
Kyle joined PeakSpan in 2019 and, since his first day at the firm, has focused on PropTech and CommerceTech. He leads both of these areas for PeakSpan and has the privilege of working with over a dozen PeakSpan portfolio companies. Kyle is from Seattle, WA and is a proud University of Washington alumnus. He started his career at RBC Capital Markets, working in the firm’s Technology group in the Bay Area. Outside of PeakSpan, Kyle enjoys spending time with his wife and two dogs, cheering on the Huskies, and skiing.
About Cassie Alexe
Cassie grew up in New Jersey and is currently based in New York. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business (Go Blue), where she received her BBA and a minor in Entrepreneurship. Before joining PeakSpan, Cassie worked at multiple startups, which gave her a firsthand view into the challenges and pace of building a company from the ground up. Over the past several years, she has worked closely with founders as an investor, advisor, and board observer. Today, Cassie is a board observer at Routefusion, Boostly, Finally, and Sales Layer.
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