Zinc

The secret backbone of e-commerce.

ActiveE CommerceVenture CapitalY Combinator

Updated: Feb 17, 2026 ·

About

Zinc is building the programmable commerce layer for the internet. Our API already enables tens of thousands of transactions each month, and our goal is much bigger: a world where any purchase online can be automated and integrated through a simple API.

As commerce shifts to automation, AI, and agents : the purchasing layer of the internet will become essential infrastructure : which is what we're building at Zinc.

Recent News & Mentions

Apr 1, 2017FundingZinc - Venture Round Jun 1, 2016FundingZinc - Venture Round

Financial History

Zinc has raised $16.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $11.0M Venture Round in April 2017.

Total Raised

$16.0M

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Jun 1, 2025	ai.work	$10.0M Seed	—	A* Capital (A Star Capital), BITKRAFT Ventures, Insight Partners, Kluz Ventures, La Famiglia, Left Lane Capital, lool ventures, Vertex Ventures Israel, Visionaries Club, Jan Deepen, Josh Silverman, Mato Peric, Stefan Jeschonnek
May 1, 2024	ActiveNav	$8.0M Venture Round	—	Acton Capital Partners, Bethnal Green Ventures
Mar 1, 2024	Victory League	$4.0M Seed	—	Aleph VC, Endure Capital, Ronald Cohen
Jan 1, 2023	myInterview	$11.0M Series A	—	Aleph VC, Endure Capital, Ronald Cohen
Aug 1, 2022	Cera	$160.0M Venture Round	—	—
Jul 1, 2022	WagerWire	$3.0M Seed	—	Chalfen Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Upfront Ventures, Khaled Helioui
May 1, 2022	Rivery.io	$30.0M Series B	—	Entrée Capital Ventures, Global Founders Capital, LAUNCH, Scopus Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SNR, State of Mind Ventures, Uncork Capital, Wing Venture Capital, Abdul Hye, Aryeh Mergi
May 1, 2022	Circles - Online Group Support	$17.0M Series A	—	Aleph VC, Endure Capital, Flint Capital, Kli Capital, NFX, Vertex Ventures, Zeev Capital, Joey Low, Ronald Cohen
Apr 1, 2022	Zeera	$37.0M Series B	—	Abstract Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Axiom Partners, Cherubic Ventures, Electric Capital, Fifth Wall, Flex Capital, Forerunner Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Modern Venture Partners, Moving Capital, Owl Ventures, Rainfall Ventures, RSE Ventures, Sound Ventures, South Park Commons, Stellar Capital, Vibe Capital, WorkLife Ventures, Adam D'Angelo, Bradley Horowitz, Charlie Cheever, Emil Michael, Jeffrey Wilke, Kevin Stumpf, Matt Mazzeo, Ryan Rzepecki
Apr 1, 2022	RiseUp	$30.0M Series B	—	Robin Klein
Mar 1, 2022	Vira Health	$12.0M Series A	—	Archimedes Accelerator LLC, Atomico, Audrey Capital, Expon Capital, LocalGlobe, Octopus Ventures, True Ventures, Bryan Meehan, Evelyn Bourke
Mar 1, 2022	TruEra	$25.0M Series B	—	Alumni Ventures, Cipholio Ventures, Electric Capital, Entrée Capital Ventures, Foundation Capital, Founder Collective, Global Founders Capital, Greylock, LAUNCH, Menlo Ventures, Polygon, Scopus Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Shima Capital, SNR, Uncork Capital, Wing Venture Capital, Aaron Peterman, Abdul Hye, Aryeh Mergi, Bob Muglia, Donald Fischer
Feb 1, 2022	Neo.Tax	$10.0M Series A	—	AirAngels, Andreessen Horowitz, Arrive, Cherry Ventures, Craft Ventures, Entrée Capital Ventures, Expa, Floodgate, Founder Collective, Global Founders Capital, Infinity Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, LAUNCH, Lux Capital, Penny Jar Capital, Scopus Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SNR, Sweet Capital, Uncork Capital, Wing Venture Capital, Abdul Hye, Aryeh Mergi, Ash Pournouri, Khaled Helioui, Tikhon Bernstam
Feb 1, 2022	Archbee	$2.0M Seed	—	Entrée Capital Ventures, Global Founders Capital, LAUNCH, Scopus Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SNR, Uncork Capital, Wing Venture Capital, Abdul Hye, Aryeh Mergi
Feb 1, 2022	Torii	$50.0M Series B	—	BITKRAFT Ventures, Blumberg Capital, Boldstart Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, ENIAC Ventures, Entrée Capital Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, GitHub Fund, Global Founders Capital, Goat Capital, M.G. Siegler, Khosla Ventures, LAUNCH, Laurence Jones, Redpoint Ventures, Sandwith Ventures, Scopus Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SNR, Trinity Ventures, Uncork Capital, Vertex Ventures, Wing Venture Capital, York IE, Abdul Hye, Adam Gross, Alex Stamos, Aryeh Mergi, Eden Chen, Edith Harbaugh, Gerhard Eschelbeck, Guy Podjarny, Kyle York, MG Siegler, Nir Eyal, Scott Belsky, Tien Tzuo
Feb 1, 2022	Aporia	$25.0M Series A	—	Blumberg Capital, Kluz Ventures, lool ventures, TLV Partners, Vertex Ventures Israel, Josh Silverman
Dec 1, 2021	Academy	$4.0M Seed	—	Abstract Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Axiom Partners, Cherubic Ventures, Electric Capital, Flex Capital, Founders Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Modern Venture Partners, Rainfall Ventures, South Park Commons, Stellar Capital, WorkLife Ventures, Adam D'Angelo, Bradley Horowitz, Charlie Cheever, Matt Mazzeo
Dec 1, 2021	Plannie	$1.0M Seed	—	Aleph VC, Cyberstarts VC, Entrée Capital Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Greenfield Partners, LAUNCH, Scopus Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SNR, Uncork Capital, Wing Venture Capital, Abdul Hye
Sep 1, 2021	Genially	$20.0M Series B	—	20VC, 645 Ventures, Anorak Ventures, Bowery Capital, DST Global, Flybridge Capital Partners, Founder Collective, Humba Ventures, Inovo VC, Market One Capital, Owl Ventures, Pathbreaker Ventures, Seven Seven Six, South Park Commons, The Hit Forge, Union Square Ventures, Joshua Schachter, Krzysztof Nowicki, Richard Branson, Sam Altman, Steve Martocci
Aug 1, 2021	Coco	$36.0M Series A	—	8090 Industries, Andreessen Horowitz, Atomic, Bennu, CRV, Entrée Capital Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Founders Fund, Global Founders Capital, Greylock, IVP, Kapor Capital, LAUNCH, Luv Ventures, Monozukuri Ventures, Outlander Labs, Pelion Venture Partners, Peterson Ventures, Saga, Scopus Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SNR, Sweet Capital, Peter Chernin, TPG, Uncork Capital, Wing Venture Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, Aaron Levie, Abdul Hye, Abe Burns, Aryeh Mergi, Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss, Howard Schultz, Joe White, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew Dellavedova, Nick Caldwell, Sam Altman, Sam Nazarian, Simon Beckerman, Tom Steyer
Aug 1, 2021	Circles - Online Group Support	$8.0M Seed	—	Aleph VC, Endure Capital, Flint Capital, Kli Capital, NFX, Zeev Capital, Lior Ron, Ronald Cohen
Jul 1, 2021	ClayStack	$5.0M Seed	—	040 Capital, AirAngels, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Anorak Ventures, Archetype, Archimedes Accelerator LLC, Atomico, Audacity, Audrey Capital, Awesome People Ventures, Baseline Ventures, Battery Ventures, Benchmark, Betaworks Ventures, Big Sky Health, Blockchain Capital, Blockchain Coinvestors AngelList Syndicate, Broadway Angels, Chapter One Ventures, Cherry Ventures, ClimacticVC, CoinFund, Craig Shapiro, Daffy, Divergence Ventures, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Draper Associates, Electric Ant, Electric Capital, ENIAC Ventures, Ethereal Ventures, Expon Capital, Firstminute Capital, foobar.vc, Founders Fund, Future Perfect Ventures, General Catalyst, Goodwater Capital, Greenfield One, Hack VC, Hashed, Heavybit, Ignition Partners, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Kearny Jackson, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, LAUNCH, LocalGlobe, Lowercarbon Capital, M34 Capital, Makers Fund, Mayfield, Mechanism Capital, Nascent, North Bridge, Not Boring Capital, Octopus Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Pioneer Fund, Polygon, Radicle Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Robot Ventures, SciFi VC, Seed Club Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Shasta Ventures, SID Venture Partners, Slow Ventures, Solana Ventures, SOSV, Sound Ventures, South Park Commons, Spark Capital, Summit Partners, Supercharge.vc, The Hit Forge, The House Fund, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, True Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Upside Partnership, Vayner RSE, Version One Ventures, Weekend Fund, Western Technology Investment, WPP Ventures, Y Combinator, Adam Jackson, Akin Sawyerr, Alex Pack, Aliaksandr Hudzilin, Alice Lloyd George, Anastasia Andrianova, Andrew Steinwold, Balaji Srinivasan, Bill Raduchel, Biz Stone, Bo Shao, Brad Holden, Bryan Meehan, Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, Charles Goldman, Chris Kelly, Claire Novorol, David Nage, Do Kwon, Don Dodge, Dustin Moskovitz, Eric Wu, Fidji Simo, Henry Kravis, Imran Khan, Jeff Morris, Jess Sloss, Joi Ito, Josh Spear, Julie Zhuo, Karl Jacob, Lauren Loktev, Luis Cuende, Marc Benioff, Mariano Conti, Mark Pincus, Moaffak Ahmed, Nathaniel Whittemore, Regan Bozman, Rene Reinsberg, Scott Belsky, Sina Habibi, Stani Kulechov, Stanley Druckenmiller, Stefan George, Steve Weinstein, Tegan Kline, Tom Foster-Carter, Trevor McFedries, Tyler Scott Ward, Victoria van Lennep
Apr 1, 2021	Aporia	$5.0M Seed	—	Blumberg Capital, Canaan Partners, Cyberstarts VC, Kluz Ventures, lool ventures, Spark Capital, Ten Eleven Ventures, TLV Partners, Vertex Ventures Israel, Josh Silverman, Michael Fey
Apr 1, 2021	Dott	$100.0M Series B	—	Archimedes Accelerator LLC, Atomico, Audrey Capital, EQT Ventures, Expon Capital, Initial Capital, LocalGlobe, Octopus Ventures, True Ventures, Bryan Meehan, Nikolaj Nyholm
Apr 1, 2021	Zeera	$10.0M Series A	—	Abstract Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Axiom Partners, Cherubic Ventures, Electric Capital, Fifth Wall, Flex Capital, Forerunner Ventures, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Modern Venture Partners, Rainfall Ventures, RSE Ventures, Sound Ventures, South Park Commons, Stellar Capital, WorkLife Ventures, Adam D'Angelo, Bradley Horowitz, Charlie Cheever, Jeffrey Wilke, Matt Mazzeo

Funding Rounds Raised

Date	Round	Lead Investors	Other Investors
Apr 1, 2017	$11.0M Venture Round		ACME Capital, BoxGroup, Collaborative Seed & Growth Partners, CRV, Emergence Capital, Entrée Capital Ventures, Founder Collective, Founders Circle Capital, IVP, Menlo Ventures, Owl Rock Capital Partners, Palisades Growth Capital, Pillar VC, Sherpa Ventures, Slow Ventures, Stride VC, Rashaun Williams, Shervin Pishevar
Jun 1, 2016	$5.0M Venture Round		ACME Capital, BoxGroup, Collaborative Seed & Growth Partners, CRV, Emergence Capital, Entrée Capital Ventures, Founder Collective, Founders Circle Capital, IVP, Menlo Ventures, Owl Rock Capital Partners, Palisades Growth Capital, Pillar VC, Sherpa Ventures, Slow Ventures, Stride VC, Rashaun Williams, Shervin Pishevar

Financial History

Zinc has raised $16.0M across 2 funding rounds.

Total Raised

$16.0M

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Zinc.

Founder/Chief Engineer

Leadership Team

Key people at Zinc.

Founder/Chief Engineer

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Zinc is a software company that provides the essential infrastructure powering e-commerce operations for tens of thousands of sellers on platforms like Amazon and eBay. Its core product is a comprehensive API suite that automates listing creation, inventory management, repricing, order placement, and fulfillment, enabling businesses to manage complex e-commerce workflows through a single integration. Zinc serves a broad range of clients including small businesses, public companies, resellers, and brands, processing over $250 million in sales annually. By simplifying and automating commerce transactions, Zinc acts as the "secret backbone" of e-commerce, facilitating seamless buying experiences and operational efficiency[1][2][4].

Origin Story

Founded in 2014 and based in San Francisco, Zinc was created by a team of MIT alumni and engineers with backgrounds at leading Silicon Valley companies such as Palantir, Stripe, Dropbox, Nest, and Optimizely. The founders, including Doug Feigelson and John Wang, envisioned building a programmable commerce layer for the internet—an API that could automate and integrate online purchasing across multiple retailers. Early traction came from enabling tens of thousands of transactions monthly and powering product catalogs for numerous e-commerce sites, establishing Zinc as a critical infrastructure player in the evolving e-commerce ecosystem[1][2].

Core Differentiators

Comprehensive API Suite: Zinc offers a full stack of APIs for product catalog access, real-time pricing, order placement, shipment tracking, and returns management across major online retailers.
Automation & Customization: Supports automated dropship arbitrage, repricing, and order fulfillment with customizable options like price ceilings, seller filtering, and shipping method selection.
Scalability & Performance: Handles high-throughput ordering with tunable rate limits and asynchronous processing to support large volumes without bottlenecks.
Developer-Friendly: Provides robust documentation and integration support, catering to teams with or without dedicated developers.
Brand Protection: Includes tools for counterfeit detection, MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) enforcement, and competitive pricing intelligence.
Network & Reach: Powers tens of thousands of small businesses and enterprise clients globally, processing hundreds of millions in sales annually[1][4].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Zinc rides the wave of increasing e-commerce automation and the shift toward programmable commerce. As online retail grows more complex with multiple marketplaces and fulfillment models, Zinc’s API infrastructure addresses the need for seamless integration and automation. The timing is critical as AI, automation, and agent-driven commerce accelerate, making programmable purchasing layers essential infrastructure. Zinc’s technology enables businesses to scale operations efficiently, reduce manual overhead, and innovate new business models such as dropship arbitrage and multi-channel selling. By standardizing and simplifying commerce APIs, Zinc influences the broader ecosystem by enabling new entrants and established players to compete effectively in a fragmented marketplace[1][2][4].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Zinc is well-positioned to expand its role as the programmable commerce backbone amid continued growth in e-commerce and automation trends. Future developments may include deeper AI integration for smarter pricing and fulfillment decisions, broader retailer coverage, and enhanced tools for brand protection and marketplace compliance. As commerce increasingly moves toward automation and API-driven workflows, Zinc’s influence will likely grow, enabling more businesses to automate purchasing and fulfillment at scale. This evolution ties back to Zinc’s founding vision of a world where any online purchase can be automated and integrated seamlessly through a simple API, making it a foundational player in the future of e-commerce[2][4].

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

Who founded Zinc?

Zinc was founded in 2014 by John Wang (Founder/Chief Engineer) and Doug Feigelson (Founder).

How much funding has Zinc raised?

Zinc has raised $16.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.

Who are Zinc's investors?

Zinc's investors include ACME Capital, BoxGroup, Collaborative Seed & Growth Partners, CRV, Emergence Capital, Entrée Capital Ventures, Founder Collective, Founders Circle Capital, IVP, Menlo Ventures, Owl Rock Capital Partners, Palisades Growth Capital.