Direct-to-consumer e-commerce company ESW said it acquired Scalefast to accelerate the company’s growth and strengthen its capabilities.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. ESW said subject to customary approvals, “the transaction is expected to close by mid-year 2022” and noted that Scalefast founders Nicolas Stehle, Fred Bocquet and Olivier Schott, will join ESW’s leadership team.

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ESW said in a statement that Scalefast builds global e-commerce channels “faster than any of its competitors, leveraging its feature-rich, in-house developed platform, retail infrastructure and applying proprietary data and behavioral analytics to deliver pre-built d-to-c e-commerce features and capabilities brands need to succeed.” ESW said, in turn, that it will offer Scalefast customers its checkout, payment gateway and logistics offerings, “which include hub or hubless options, omnichannel solutions such as ship from store, and an ecosystem of global logistics partners that move hundreds of millions of packages each year on behalf of its clients.”

ESW said the deal “will further extend ESW’s market strength across apparel, beauty, personal care, and luxury brands to include entertainment, gaming and electronics” and added that Scalefast’s data analytics and speed-to-market capabilities “will also facilitate turnkey localized stores, digital ‘pop-up’ stores, and highly targeted d-to-c brand campaigns, which will all strongly complement ESW’s unrivaled cross-border d-to-c solutions and market-leading end-to-end customer experience.”

Tommy Kelly, founder and chief executive officer of ESW, said the acquisition of Scalefast “demonstrates our commitment and ambition to accelerate growth for our customers by empowering them to be at the forefront of rapidly evolving consumer requirements [worldwide]. Scalefast’s technology offering is highly complementary and will enable ESW to unleash new capabilities and deliver even faster direct-to-consumer e-commerce growth for new and existing clients.”

Stehle, who served as CEO of Scalefast, said the company’s services are “highly synergistic with ESW’s from a revenue generation perspective. Scalefast and ESW’s blended knowledge, expertise, and technology will provide distinct competitive advantages as a fully integrated technology-driven commerce service provider.”

Kelly told WWD the d-to-c market is evolving after seeing accelerated growth during the pandemic. He said merchants are looking for more holistic options “that are best in class” and can help leverage localization and demographics. Kelly said there are nuances in different countries, and as d-to-c brands eye global growth, partnering with ESW can help navigate the market.

“During the pandemic, retailers were looking for execution,” Kelly said. “But as d-to-c evolves, they’re looking for a more agile and sustainable model. With this acquisition, we now offer that.”