Cococart

Cococart provides software for independent and local businesses to sell online and manage day-to-day operations from a single application. Its product set spans an online store builder (themes, inventory, payments, link-in-bio), point of sale for iOS and Android (open tickets, shifts, payment terminal, kitchen display), QR code menus and scan-to-order, bookings for reservations and appointments (reminders, custom questions, deposits, calendar), and marketing and customer tools including email campaigns, loyalty points, CRM and promo codes. Additional capabilities listed include analytics, abandoned cart recovery, reviews, deliveries and support for multiple payment types.

The platform began in 2020 as an e-commerce enabler for home-based and independent sellers, centered on an order form backed by inventory and order management, flexible payment options and custom fulfillment methods, and has since expanded toward a broader suite covering operations, marketing and sales. Merchant-facing features include unlimited products, product variants and customizations, custom questions, bundles whose availability is derived from component inventory, calendar-based fulfillment and pre-orders with cutoff and start dates, daily order summaries and order caps by day or fulfillment method.

Cococart positions itself as an alternative to third-party apps and marketplaces that charge commissions, targeting merchants that still take orders by phone or messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Instagram. Company materials describe the addressable set as roughly 200 million businesses worldwide that are not yet selling online.

Founding story

Founder Derek Low began selling homemade cheesecakes online in 2020 after losing his hotel in Bali, and found existing e-commerce tools too slow and costly to set up for taking orders. Observing that some 200 million businesses take orders by phone or messaging apps, he partnered with Zhicong Lim to build Cococart. Low previously founded and ran Basecamp Bali as CEO from 2019 to 2021, created the Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm project, and studied Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley.

Business model

Cococart sells subscription software to merchants, with individually selectable modules (online store, POS, QR code menu, loyalty, email marketing, bookings, kitchen display, CRM) and packaged bundles marketed as Value, Essentials and Premium tiers for online sellers, growing businesses and high-performing businesses respectively. A free 7-day trial with cancel-anytime terms is offered, and stores can be created and launched at no cost. The company frames its pricing as consolidating multiple separate apps into one subscription.

Recurring subscription fees for feature modules and bundled plans, positioned explicitly against marketplace and app models that charge per-order fees and commissions.

Traction

The company reported over 20,000 merchants across more than 90 countries, over 500,000 orders taken and more than $15 million in merchant earnings as of its February 2022 seed announcement, alongside 30x merchant growth and 46x customer growth during 2021. Its website states it is trusted by more than 70,000 businesses. TechCrunch reported the company described itself as profitable at the time of the raise. One cited merchant, Indonesian cuisine provider INDOCIN, grew from home kitchen sales to a retail outlet and 24 employees within a year of joining.

Latest developments

The company has expanded from its original order-form product into a multi-module suite, adding point of sale for iOS and Android with kitchen display and payment terminal support, a bookings and reservations module with optional deposits, QR code menus, loyalty points, email marketing and CRM, packaged into tiered bundles. Its website reports more than 70,000 businesses using the platform. Y Combinator lists the company as active with a team size of 18 and a Madrid, Spain location.