Product protection platform Mulberry today announced it has closed a $22 million Series B funding round, led by Commerce Ventures and with participation from Hudson Structured Capital Management, Ally Bank, CreditEase, and existing investors. The funds are earmarked for engineering and customer service hires along with new technologies.
Mulberry delivers a customer warranty experience embedded into online retailers’ websites and offered through a Google Chrome browser extension. With the browser extension, shoppers can get 12 months of free accident protection wherever they shop online and take advantage of what Mulberry said are low rates on longer-term plans. Mulberry’s brand partnership solution allows retailers to embed these offers into their customer journey to unlock incremental revenue and develop stronger relationships with their customers. Both solutions are built on Mulberry’s proprietary machine learning technology that maps products to relevant protection plans in real time, enabling a faster integration process for retail brands.
“We’re thrilled with this new investment because it will help us execute on our vision to transform the product protection experience for both shoppers and retailers,” said Chinedu Eleanya, Mulberry co-founder and CEO. “Many shoppers have not been able to take advantage of product protection, either because the retailers with whom they shop don’t provide it or the offers they’ve seen have provided too little value for too high a cost. We want to make product protection available to all consumers by offering affordable protection wherever they shop online and delivering a great experience from purchase to claim.”
Mulberry’s warranty programs have attracted retail partners including Hayneedle, FormeLife, Houzz, Neato Robotics, and TriMark. As part of the expansion over the last year, Mulberry has filled key leadership roles with executive hires from HubSpot, Lexington Insurance, NerdWallet, Stack Overflow, Toast, Trustpilot, and WeWork.
“There has historically been a lack of innovation in the product protection industry, which has prioritized profit at the expense of consumer value. We’re excited to deepen our relationship with Mulberry because they’re taking a truly unique approach that focuses on solving for consumers,” said Matt Nichols, general partner at Commerce Ventures. “The Mulberry browser extension flips the industry on its head by offering incredible value to the consumer upfront and making it easy for everyone to take advantage of product protection. The company’s growth, customer-focus, and exceptional team makes us confident in their ability to transform how consumers experience product protection.”