Shopify

Shopify provides the software merchants use to build online stores, take payments, run point-of-sale and manage orders. Its customers range from small independent sellers to large brands. Tobias Lutke, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake started it after building Snowdevil, an online snowboard shop launched in 2004. Lutke wrote the store on Ruby on Rails because he found existing e-commerce software inadequate, and the founders launched the platform as Shopify in June 2006. The company is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario.

Shopify raised a $7 million Series A in December 2010 from Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital and Felicis Ventures at a $20 million pre-money valuation. At the time the platform was processing about $132 million of annualized transaction value. A $15 million Series B followed in October 2011 and a $100 million Series C in December 2013. At the IPO, the 5% holders were entities affiliated with Bessemer (30.28%, with Bessemer partner Jeremy Levine on the board), FirstMark Capital I (11.87%), Klister Credit Corp. (7.49%), OMERS Ventures II (6.05%) and entities affiliated with Georgian Partners (5.48%). The prospectus also notes that shareholders affiliated with Insight Venture Partners bought about $4.0 million of stock in the offering.

Shopify priced its IPO at $17.00 per share on May 21, 2015, selling 7.7 million Class A subordinate voting shares on the New York Stock Exchange (SHOP) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (SH). Revenue had reached $105.0 million in 2014, split between $66.7 million from subscription solutions and $38.4 million from merchant solutions such as payments. The company moved its U.S. listing to Nasdaq on March 31, 2025. It reported 2025 revenue of $11.56 billion, up 30% from 2024, and gross merchandise volume of $292.3 billion in 2024. Lutke holds Class B multiple voting shares and runs the company as CEO.

Shopify shows how far a small early check can go. Bessemer, FirstMark and Felicis came in at a $20 million pre-money valuation and were still large holders at the IPO four and a half years later. The company raised only about $122 million in disclosed private rounds before listing, so most of its growth happened in the public markets. Holders after 2015 saw revenue grow more than a hundredfold, from $105 million to $11.56 billion.