nFuse, an AI-powered B2B ordering platform, founded jointly with Appolica, has raised an investment from two of Central and Eastern Europe’s most active venture funds Eleven Ventures and LAUNCHub to accelerate expansion across Europe, the US, and emerging markets. The company enables CPG retailers to place orders and helps CPG companies personalise promotional and new product communication – through 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 how they operate.
The funding arrives at a critical inflection point for the CPG industry. Energy costs and oil supply disruptions now ripple through up to a third of the CPG value chain – hitting manufacturing, packaging, warehousing, and last-mile distribution simultaneously. At the same time, CPG companies face pressure from the other direction: weakening consumer confidence and declining disposable incomes are compressing top-line growth across key markets. Caught between rising operational costs and slowing revenue, the industry can no longer afford to run its most basic commercial process – reordering – the human effort-led way.
The $5 Trillion Channel That Digital Solutions Keep Failing
Fragmented trade – the network of independent shops, kiosks, restaurants, and HoReCa operators that dominate commerce across emerging markets – represents over $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 CPG companies already navigating margin compression, this channel is both the largest growth opportunity and the most expensive to serve through traditional means.
Despite more than a decade of investment in B2B eCommerce platforms, adoption in fragmented trade hovers around 15%. Industry analysts estimate 80–95% of B2B eCommerce projects underperform or fail outright. The platforms work technically. The retailers ignore them.
“The fundamental assumption was wrong. The industry built eB2B for headquarters – for the people who wanted dashboards and data. Not for the retailer standing behind a counter who just needs to reorder beer before the weekend rush.” – Stoyan Ivanov, Co-Founder and CEO, nFuse
The Fix: Meet Retailers Where They Already Are
nFuse was founded on a different observation. Across all markets, small retailers are already running their businesses through messaging apps – sending voice notes, photos of empty shelves, and handwritten lists via SMS, WhatsApp, or whatever app they use daily. nFuse turns that existing behavior into a confirmed order in seconds.
No new app. No login. No training required. The results are materially different from what traditional platforms deliver: 70%+ retailer adoption with enterprise clients, versus an industry average of 10–15%. Revenue per outlet increases 15–30%. Deployment takes a month, not a year. Cost per order targets below $1 – a 5x to 20x reduction compared to traditional rep-based or call center ordering. For CPG brands under margin pressure, that cost delta is no longer just an efficiency gain. It is a route to profitability on outlets that were 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 rep happened to visit – now reorder weekly. New SKU launches reach outlets faster. And with every transaction flowing through a single channel, real-time demand signals become available across the entire network.
“These retailers aren’t technology-averse. They’re using technology constantly. Just not the technology we kept 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 know the FMCG industry inside out and have set out an ambitious task to solve the broken model of B2B e-commerce solutions. Instead of asking retailers to change their behaviour, the advancements in AI has opened a new frontier of intelligent solutions that speak their language via the channels they usually use. This unlocks enormous opportunities for brands, as the tail of the market can now be served efficiently and at scale.” – Ivaylo Simov, Partner, Eleven Ventures
“The B2B eCommerce graveyard is full of platforms that worked technically but failed commercially. Most portals force unnatural behavior – buyers do not want to click through SKUs and quantities. nFuse makes ordering natural again via voice, text, or image, just like speaking or texting to a sales rep. With 30 years in distribution, the founders have seen exactly where adoption fails. We backed the insight as much as the product.” – Rumen Iliev, Partner, LAUNCHub Ventures
What Comes Next
The funding will support nFuse’s expansion across Europe, with plans extending into broader EMEA and Americas markets. The company currently serves category leaders in beverages, beer, snacks, frozen food, modern nicotine, dairy, pet food, and wholesale distribution, validating the model across FMCG verticals.
Beyond ordering, nFuse is building toward payments and predictive demand intelligence – letting retailers 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 spent a decade trying to get retailers to come to us. We’re just going to 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 through SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, and other messaging apps using text, voice, or images. Founded by ex-Coca-Cola executives Stoyan Ivanov and Stefan Radov – with 30+ years of combined distribution experience – the company partners with leading FMCG production and distribution enterprises across Europe and emerging markets. nFuse is backed by Eleven Ventures and LAUNCHub, and was co-founded with Appolica.
This press release was originally published on this site
