PrettyDamnQuick raises $25M Series A to tackle cart abandonment with personalized checkout
PrettyDamnQuick raises $25M Series A to tackle cart abandonment with personalized checkout
PDQ’s platform focuses on optimizing the checkout process for medium-sized businesses engaged in online direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales.
The Israeli start-up PrettyDamnQuick (PDQ) has raised $25 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by PeakSpan Capital, with participation from Moneta Ventures and TLV Partners, the latter of which led PDQ’s Seed round in 2022. This latest funding brings the company’s total investment to $38 million since its inception. PDQ aims to address one of the biggest challenges in e-commerce: cart abandonment at the checkout stage.
In an interview with Calcalist, Avi Moskowitz, the company's CEO and co-founder, explained, "We have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a checkout experience for shopping sites that meets the 'Amazon standard.' On major retail websites, consumers know how much delivery will cost, how they will receive their orders, and how long it will take. However, on most small and medium-sized shopping websites, this standard doesn’t exist. Every shopper receives the same poor experience, regardless of whether they are a first-time buyer, a loyal customer, or someone who has previously returned products. Customers who shop on weekends, when the logistics chain isn’t active, also face uncertainty. This needs to change. In today’s era of dynamic personalization and automation, a better and more tailored experience is achievable.”
PDQ’s platform focuses on optimizing the checkout process for medium-sized businesses engaged in online direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales. "We don’t replace existing systems," Moskowitz explained. "Our technology integrates seamlessly in the background, meaning businesses don’t need to overhaul their infrastructure. Similar to Dynamic Yield, which enhances website user experiences by analyzing user behavior, PDQ introduces personalization to the checkout process. After thoroughly analyzing the customer journey and shopping experience, our system integrates with leading e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Salesforce Commerce, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, and more. We gather data about the user, the shipping company, and the nearest warehouse. This allows us to present features like accurate delivery promises at the product page stage, ensuring critical information is available at checkout."
Moskowitz highlighted the key pain point PDQ addresses: 70% of online shoppers abandon their carts. "Many customers only discover expensive shipping costs at the very last stage, which leads to abandonment. This happens daily—unlike Amazon, where customers always know exactly what to expect. Amazon's advantage lies in its comprehensive access to logistics data, such as driver availability and warehouse locations, which smaller players lack."
PDQ empowers medium-sized online retailers to offer personalized checkout experiences previously reserved for giants like Amazon and Nike. The platform enables brands to customize each checkout process based on customer behavior, location, cart contents, time of day, and historical purchase data. These features are now accessible to businesses using platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Salesforce Commerce, Adobe Commerce, and others. Each checkout experience is tailored to optimize key factors, such as delivery methods and customer incentives, with real-time calculations ensuring increased profitability and customer satisfaction.
E-commerce businesses generate massive amounts of customer data during the shopping process, including browsing patterns, product preferences, and delivery details. While much of this data is used for marketing—such as targeted ads or personalized recommendations—checkout optimization is often overlooked due to its complexity. Giants like Amazon invest heavily in this area, giving them a competitive advantage, but PDQ enables smaller brands to compete on equal footing by meeting the same high consumer expectations. For example, the platform allows businesses to offer accurate delivery estimates, discounts for returning customers, and other checkout incentives, all in real time.
PDQ was founded in 2021 by Avi Moskowitz, who serves as CEO, and Liran Erez, Chief Experience Officer (CXO), who leads customer relations and product strategy. The company employs over 30 people, most of whom are based in Israel at its headquarters and development center, with additional staff in the U.S. and other global locations.
Yonatan Mandelbaum, Partner at TLV Partners: “PDQ is the rare company that’s truly data-driven. They leveraged their initial unique insight, that e-commerce operations can be leveraged to both increase efficiency as well as increase conversion rates to create a powerful data engine that enables e-commerce businesses to actually understand and better serve their customers. Their success during 2024 isn’t surprising as Avi and Liran’s work ethic, customer obsession and persistence are second to none.”
