Iris Raises $6.2M To Expand CPG-Focused Financial Platform
AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform Iris plans to accelerate growth after today announcing the closing of a $6.2 million funding round led by Glasswing Ventures.
Founder Collective and Hyde Park Angels (HPA) also participated in the round, as well as existing investors Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Barrel Ventures, and Rosecliff Ventures.
Launched in mid-2024, Iris Finance was co-founded by CEO Drew Fallon, CCO Alexander Heckmann, and CTO Marko Iwanik to “eliminate the latency gap” of end-of-month sales data in order to help brands make financial decisions in real-time. Fallon, the former CFO and COO of personal care brand Mad Rabbit, is now working to “pioneer the automation of CFOs’ and COOs’ day-to-day financial decision-making,” with the new platform.
“Many customers rely on low quality data to make decisions that lead to suboptimal profitability outcomes, as well as expensive working capital mistakes,” said Fallon. “Whether it is lack of visibility into gross margins, CAC fluctuations, inventory forecasts, or even basics like sales tax collection – the siloed nature of a brand’s data makes it very difficult to optimize for profitability.”
Iris’ database, known as Iris DB, synthesizes sales, marketing, accounting and supply chain data from Shopify, Amazon, NetSuite, TikTok, Google Ads and other sources. That data is then presented to give CPG customers “immediate visibility into their financial and operational performance.”
According to the company, 82% of small businesses fail due to cash flow mismanagement, and nearly 70% of small-to-medium sized businesses keep less than four months of cash reserves on hand. At a time when “profitability has never been more important,” Fallon believes Iris can solve a major growth hurdle for inventoried businesses.
“Capital markets demand one of two things: growth or profits,” said Fallon. “In 2022, growth across e-commerce and CPG stalled after the liquidity supernova of 2021, and in an industry where growth stopped, brands have all started racing to profitability… most brands who have not made this switch did not make it.”
According to Fallon, Iris’ new capital will be used to continue expanding its market reach by enhancing the AI product itself; better forecasting and inventory planning capabilities will also be a priority. Some of the cash will also go toward advancing “cross-company benchmarking” and expanding the team with a focus on customer success and engineering roles.
