A new Toronto-based startup, Frate, recently raised nearly two million dollars in pre-seed funding led by 2048 Ventures. The company’s mission is to “reinvent returns for the betterment of the planet.”
E-commerce has grown rapidly in Canada in recent years. The domestic e-commerce market is projected to be worth almost $80 billion in 2022, and is expected to grow 15% per year over the next five years. This online shopping boom has led to increased returns, which in turn lead to both increased pollution and financial harm for e-commerce companies that typically offer free returns.
Frate’s solution to this problem is through peer-to-peer returns. Rather than ship products back to warehouses just to ship them out again to new purchasers, Frate’s platform allows retailers to ship returns directly from one customer to another. This reduces the shipping cost and pollution required for returns under the traditional method.
Frate’s beta product is currently being used by some Canadian retailers and the company is planning a full launch in the new year.
Authors
Expertise
Insights
-
Technology
CanCode, Digital Literacy Program, Receives $39.2 Million in Federal Funding
From establishing the Digital Charter to earmarking $2.4 billion for the artificial intelligence (“AI”) industry in the 2024 federal budget, the Canadian government has consistently demonstrated its… -
Technology
Virtuix Announces Launch of their Omni One VR Treadmill
Virtuix recently revealed it will be launching a virtual reality treadmill—called Omni One—on September 10, 2024. The first of its kind, Omni One allows users to experience the locomotive elements of… -
Technology
WELL Health Plans to Spin Out and Publicly List WELL Provider Solutions
WELL Health (WELL) has announced its plans to spin out and publicly list WELL Provider Solutions (WPS), the company’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business unit.WELL, founded in 2012 and listed on the… -
Technology
Perceptive Space Raises $3.9 Million to Predict Space Weather Using AI
Perceptive Space, a Canadian aerospace startup, closed a CAD $3.9 million (USD $2.8 million) pre-seed funding round. This marks the company’s first external funding to date. The round was led by… -
Technology
Advancing Femtech: Flo Health Secures $200 Million in Series C Funding
Flo Health is a London-based startup that designed a health app for fertility and period-tracking. On July 30, 2024, it raised $200 million in Series C funding from General Atlantic. Flo Health is now… -
Technology
The Microsoft and NVIDIA Collaboration
As modern medicine develops, it increasingly relies on technological advancements. One of the more recent and major examples of this is Microsoft’s collaboration with NVIDIA to bring the power of…