nFuse, an AI-powered B2B ordering platform jointly founded with Appolica, has raised an investment from two of Central and Eastern Europe’s most active venture funds, Eleven Ventures and LAUNCHub, to accelerate its expansion across Europe, the US and emerging markets. The company enables FMCG retailers to place orders and helps FMCG companies personalize their promotional communications and new products – via SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp and other messaging apps they already use, via text, voice or photos – without downloading a new app, logging into a portal or changing the way they operate.
Funding is coming at a critical inflection point for the FMCG industry. Energy costs and oil supply disruptions now ripple across up to a third of the FMCG value chain, simultaneously affecting manufacturing, packaging, warehousing and last-mile distribution. At the same time, consumer goods companies are facing pressure from the other direction: weakening consumer confidence and falling disposable incomes are squeezing revenue growth in key markets. Stuck between rising operational costs and slowing revenues, the industry can no longer afford to manage its most basic business process – replenishment – using human effort.
The $5 Trillion Channel Where Digital Solutions Continue to Fail
Fragmented commerce – the network of independent stores, kiosks, restaurants and HoReCa operators that dominate commerce in emerging markets – is worth more than $5 trillion in annual value. In regions such as CESEE, Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, these outlets account for the majority of FMCG sales. For FMCG companies already facing margin compression, this channel represents both the greatest growth opportunity and the most expensive to exploit through traditional means.
Despite more than a decade of investment in B2B e-commerce platforms, adoption in fragmented commerce hovers around 15%. Industry analysts estimate that 80-95% of B2B e-commerce projects underperform or fail outright. The platforms work technically. Retailers ignore them.
“The fundamental assumption was wrong. The industry built eB2B for the corporate office – for people who wanted dashboards and data. Not for the retailer standing behind a counter who just needs to order beer before the weekend rush.” – Stoyan Ivanov, co-founder and CEO, nFuse
The Solution: Meet Retailers Where They Already Are
nFuse was born from a different observation. In every market, small retailers already run their businesses through messaging apps: they send voice notes, photos of empty shelves and handwritten lists via SMS, WhatsApp or any other app they use daily. nFuse turns this existing behavior into a confirmed command in seconds.
No new apps. No connection. No training required. The results are significantly different from those obtained by traditional platforms: more than 70% adoption by retailers with enterprise customers, compared to an industry average of 10 to 15%. Revenue per point of sale increases by 15 to 30%. Deployment takes a month, not a year. Target cost per order under $1: A 5x to 20x reduction compared to traditional rep or call center based orders. For consumer product brands subject to pressure on their margins, this cost delta no longer represents just an efficiency gain. It is a path to profitability at points of sale previously too expensive to serve.
For brands managing distribution at scale, the model also changes the economics of reaching the long tail. Retailers who previously reordered monthly – when a sales representative visited – now restock weekly. New SKUs are launched more quickly in points of sale. And because each transaction flows through a single channel, real-time demand signals become available across the entire network.
“These retailers are not technology averse. They use technology all the time. But not the technology we’re trying to give them. They don’t want another app. They want to order the same way they message their family.” – Stefan Radov, co-founder and COO, nFuse
Investor Perspective
“Stoyan and Stefan understand the FMCG industry inside out and have set an ambitious goal to solve the broken model of B2B e-commerce solutions. Instead of asking retailers to change their behavior, advances in AI have opened a new frontier of intelligent solutions that speak their language through the channels they usually use. – Ivaylo Simov, Partner, Eleven Ventures
“The B2B e-commerce graveyard is full of platforms that worked technically but failed commercially. Most portals force unnatural behavior: buyers don’t want to click on SKUs and quantities. nFuse makes ordering natural again via voice, text, or image, just like talking or texting a sales rep. With 30 years of retail experience, the founders saw exactly where adoption fails. We supported the idea as much as the product. “- Rumen Iliev, Partner, LAUNCHub Ventures
What comes next
The funding will support nFuse’s expansion across Europe, with plans to expand to wider markets in EMEA and the Americas. The company currently serves category leaders in beverages, beer, snacks, frozen foods, modern nicotine, dairy, pet food and wholesale distribution, validating the model in FMCG verticals.
Beyond orders, nFuse is moving into payments and predictive demand intelligence, allowing retailers to pay through the same messaging thread where they place orders and using aggregated shelf data to generate real-time supply signals for brands.
“The industry has spent a decade trying to get retailers to come to us. We’re just going where they already are.” – Stoyan Ivanov, co-founder and CEO, nFuse
About nFuse
nFuse is an AI-powered B2B ordering platform that enables FMCG retailers and HoReCa operators to place orders and enable two-way conversational commerce via SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp and other messaging apps using text, voice or images. Founded by former Coca-Cola executives Stoyan Ivanov and Stefan Radov – with over 30 years of combined retail experience – the company partners with leading FMCG production and distribution companies in Europe and emerging markets. nFuse is backed by Eleven Ventures and LAUNCHub and was co-founded with Appolica.
