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Optoro, Inc.
Company typePrivately held company
IndustryComputer software, reverse logistics
Founded2004; 20 years ago (2004) (as eSpot)
FoundersTobin Moore
Adam Vitarello
Headquarters
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Key people
Amena Ali, CEO; Adam Vitarello, Chief Strategy Officer
Websitehttp://optoro.com/

Optoro is a reverse logistics 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.[2] Optoro also liquidates goods in bulk through its other proprietary website.[3]

History

[edit]

Optoro was founded as eSpot Deals in 2004 by Tobin "Toby" Moore[4][5][6] while he was a student at Brown University.[7] The business was initially run out of an attic above the garage at Moore's house before opening a 1,200-square-foot storefront in Georgetown.[8] Moore and co-founder Adam Vitarello, now Optoro's president, opened one of the first eBay drop off stores in Washington, DC.[9] In 2008, the pair opened an office and warehouse in Lanham, Maryland, where they processed goods from retailers.[7] In 2010, eSpot Deals pivoted away from processing returns directly and incorporated as Optoro, Inc. Tobin and Adam were joined by CTO Jessica Szmajda,[10] and built a new plan to deliver technology solutions to retailers to handle their returned and excess goods. In September 2013, Optoro moved its corporate headquarters to a 13,000-square-foot office in downtown Chinatown, D.C.[11] 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, holding around 160 people.[12] In February 2021, Optoro shut down its direct-to-consumer eCommerce website, blinq.com.

Products and services

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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.[13] The software tracks and dispositions inventory as it flows through a warehouse until it reaches consumers.[14] Using OptiTurn, workers mark the conditions of returned products as new, open box, refurbished, or used in good condition.[15] OptiTurn analyzes this, along with other product information, to divert items to the channel that will get retailers the most money back.[16] Possible dispositions include selling directly to consumers, reselling to wholesalers, returning to vendors for repair, donating, or recycling.[7]

OptiTurn lists products with a high resale value automatically on multiple online marketplaces under the BLINQ brand. 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

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In March 2015, Optoro started a dedicated sustainability team to measure the transportation and waste impacts of the returns industry and the effects that Optoro's solution has on retailers' carbon footprints.[17]

Financing

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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][18] 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.[18]

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.[19] The financing from KPCB came from its Green Growth Fund.[20]

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.[21]

In December 2016, Optoro raised $30 million in Series D funding from UPS, Revolution Growth, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Generation Investment Management, Tenfore Holdings, SWaN and Legend Venture Partners and the Maryland Venture Fund.[22]

Awards

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  • 2013, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, No. 278[23]
  • 2014, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, No. 229[24]
  • 2015, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, No. 308[25]
  • 2015, Washingtonian's 100 Top Tech Leaders, Tobin Moore and Adam Vitarello[citation needed]
  • 2015, CNBC Disruptor 50 List, No. 38[26]
  • 2015, Ernst & Young's Greater Washington's Entrepreneur of the Year in the Emerging Growth category, Tobin Moore and Adam Vitarello[27]
  • 2016, World Economic Forum's Ecolab Award for Circular Economy Enterprise[28]
  • 2016, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, No. 266[29]

References

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  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. ^ a b Mitchell, Billy (November 25, 2013). "Optoro Gets More Funding, Adds Board Member". DC Inno. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  3. ^ a b 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. ^ staff, Michelai Graham / (2019-12-09). "Optoro lands a partnership with IKEA to reduce waste from returns". Technical.ly DC. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  5. ^ Andy Medici (July 7, 2020). "These D.C.-area tech firms have all raised $100M or more. They also got PPP loans". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  6. ^ Adams, Susan. "Optoro Is Building A Billion-Dollar Business Helping Companies Cope With A Glut Of Rejected Stuff". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  7. ^ a b c Mirabella, Lorraine (December 13, 2014). "Handling Holiday Returns Helps Fuel Lanham Firm". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  8. ^ Adams, Susan. "Optoro Is Building A Billion-Dollar Business Helping Companies Cope With A Glut Of Rejected Stuff". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
  9. ^ Ghiloni, Kate (September 4, 2005). "Four Task Masters to Make Life Easier". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  10. ^ Graham, Michelai (2020-12-02). "Power Moves: Jess Szmajda left her CTO role at Axios for AWS". Technical.ly DC. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  11. ^ Jacob, Allyson (September 20, 2013). "Reverse Logistics Firm Optoro Opens 13,000-square-foot Office in Chinatown Today". Elevation DC. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  12. ^ Sernovitz, Daniel J. (December 24, 2015). "Optoro to expand with move to new D.C. office space". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
  13. ^ Lam, Bourree (December 30, 2015). "The Rise of Return-Anything Culture". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  14. ^ Null, Christopher (December 22, 2015). "The Cure for Retailers' Holiday Returns Hangover". Rewrite. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  15. ^ Douglas, Dianna (January 1, 2016). "Maryland Startup Redirects River Of Rejected Gifts". NPR. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  16. ^ Li, Shan (December 25, 2015). "A growing holiday pastime: returning those unwanted gifts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  17. ^ Bing, Chris (March 31, 2015). "Optoro Hires Sustainability Director, Joins Mayor's Smarter DC Challenge". DC Inno. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  18. ^ a b Grant, Rebecca (July 17, 2013). "Revolution Growth Fund Invests $23.5M in Optoro to Find Unwanted Goods A home". VentureBeat. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  19. ^ Shieber, Jonathan (December 9, 2014). "Turning Unwanted Goods Into New Sales, Optoro Raises $50 Million". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  20. ^ Field, Anne (December 14, 2014). "Social Enterprise Optoro Raises $50M In Round Led By Kleiner Perkins". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  21. ^ Jayakumar, Amrita (July 28, 2015). "Optoro Picks up $40 Million in Debt Financing". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  22. ^ "Tech firm Optoro joins forces with UPS as part of $30 million investment". Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
  23. ^ "Technology Fast 500" (PDF). Deloitte. November 14, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  24. ^ "Deloitte's 2014 Technology Fast 500" (PDF). Deloitte. December 11, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  25. ^ "Deloitte's 2015 Technology Fast 500 Ranking" (PDF). Deloitte. November 13, 2015. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  26. ^ "Disruptor 50: No. 38 Optoro". CNBC Disruptor 50. 12 May 2015. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  27. ^ Bousquet, Chris (June 19, 2015). "Optoro Co-Founders Win 2015 EY Entrepreneur Awards For Business Growth". DC Inno. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  28. ^ Dumaine, Brian (January 19, 2016). "Winners of the Circulars Awards Announced at Davos". Fortune. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
  29. ^ "Deloitte's 2015 Technology Fast 500 Ranking" (PDF). Deloitte. November 16, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
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