Shopify, the fast-growing e-commerce provider, has acquired Boltmade, a Waterloo product design and development firm, and will incorporate its team into its Shopify Plus operation in Waterloo.
The acquisition, announced today, comes months after Shopify engaged Boltmade on a project “and quickly realized the team’s huge potential and depth of talent,” said Loren Padelford, VP of Shopify Plus, which recently celebrated the opening of its Waterloo office in the former Seagram Museum.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Boltmade has grown steadily since it launched as ArtBarn Labs in early 2013, working with clients small and large, including Waterloo Region startups Bridgit and Auvik, as well as Kik and some larger U.S. companies.
Its CEO, Jim Murphy, is a tech veteran and serial entrepreneur, having worked in Silicon Valley, New York and Boston after he graduated from the University of Waterloo in the mid-1990s. After returning to Waterloo Region less than a decade ago, he hired the development team at PostRank, an analytics startup that Google later acquired, then went on to work as Chief Technology Officer at Waterloo-based Demeure, an online travel marketplace.
Murphy is also CEO and Chairman of the Elora Brewing Company, a craft brewery just outside the region.
“Shopify has had a big impact on commerce by helping businesses of all sizes achieve success. Earlier this year, we jumped at the chance to work on a project with them,” Murphy said in a news release issued today by Shopify. “We’re excited to be joining Shopify Plus to help some of the most recognizable, fastest-growing brands in the world sell billions of dollars of product.”
