Freeborders Acquires Karat Software
Freeborders, a San Francisco-based B2B firm that caters to apparel retailers, has been on the move with new funding and a new acquisition. The company, which provides supply-chain solutions for the retail industry, recently received $9 million for its third round of financing and shortly thereafter sealed a deal to acquire Montreal-based Karat Software Corp., which provides design and development solutions to retail.
Karat is a four-year-old firm that is profitable with customers the Gap, Target, Ann Taylor, Coach, Eddie Bauer, Woolrich, J. Crew, Saks Fifth Avenue and Levi Strauss & Co. The deal gives Freeborders a dominant share of the design and development solutions market for leading retailers. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“The acquisition of Karat strengthens our design solutions offering and broadens our customer relationships,” said Ramsey Walker, chief executive officer of Freeborders. “We recognize the importance of design as the gateway to the product life cycle.”
The Karat acquisition comes less than eight months after the purchase of Applied Intranet Technologies (Ai). Karat Software will be fully integrated into Freeborders. Some Karat Software employees will remain in Montreal, while the remaining staff will relocate to the Freeborders headquarters in San Francisco. Freeborders has additional offices in Mexico City, Montreal, and Manchester, England. The company is looking to strengthen its position in the retail supply-chain industry and will either hire additional employees or execute future acquisitions.
Karat Software was self-funded. Freeborders has raised over $42 million to date from backers including Crystal Internet Venture Funds, Elek Moreno Valle & Associates, Fountain Set Holdings, Grupo Mina, ICG Asia, Internet Capital Group, Luen Thai, Orient Holding International and TAL Apparel. —Robert McAllister
