Israel’s Twiggle raises $12.5 million to take on Amazon in product search

Twiggle, a digital commerce search engine powered by data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, has secured $12.5 million.

Twiggle said in a statement that it intends to use the funds to continue its international expansion and challenge Amazon's A9 search engine in digital commerce search.

The Series A round for the Israeli startup was led by South African multinational Naspers along with participation from Yahoo Japan, State of Mind Ventures, and Sir Ronald Cohen.

The company was founded in 2013 by Dr Amir Kongsberg and Dr Avi Avidor, two former Googlers, and uses AI and machine learning to create better search and product discovery solutions for online commerce.

“Twiggle is infusing search with an entirely new approach that will allow digital commerce giants to redefine the shopper’s experience, increasing revenues and enabling digital commerce to reach its full potential,” said Konigsberg, CEO.

Twiggle previously raised an undisclosed seed round in 2014 while Naspers, the chief investor in this round, has a history of investing in digital commerce such as Flipkart and Tencent.

“Twiggle is setting a new industry standard for ecommerce search and discovery, redefining the sector with a search platform that will bring unparalleled precision and accuracy,” explained Naspers Ventures CEO Larry Illg. “This investment is yet another example of our commitment to utilizing our broad network to help identify and support the most exciting digital startups.”