Yroo

About Yroo

Yroo Inc., founded in 2014 by James Cunningham and Nick Zhu, operated as a technology company in the e-commerce sector, initially establishing itself as a social shopping search engine. Based in Toronto, Canada, with corporate offices in Dublin, Ireland, the company aimed to simplify the online shopping experience. The platform functioned as a search engine dedicated to product discovery, allowing consumers to search for items, compare prices from various retailers, and view promotions all in one place. By 2016, Yroo reported having over 2.5 million users and partnerships with 1,000 merchants, which grew to over 15 million users and 4,000 merchants by mid-2017.

The business model centered on providing a comprehensive catalog of products from major retailers like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart, enabling users to find and compare items effectively. Revenue was generated through its 1,500 retail and brand advertisers. Yroo's platform utilized data from user interactions—such as clicks, shares, and favorites—to generate a proprietary popularity score for products and retailers, which helped in delivering personalized search results. A key milestone was the launch of its mobile application for iOS and Android in June 2017. The app included features like a barcode scanner for in-store price comparisons, price history information, and notifications for price drops on favored items.

In November 2018, Yroo launched a new product, Shopbrain, an AI-powered shopping assistant. This browser extension for Chrome would automatically search for better prices in real-time as a user shopped on various retail websites. The company's journey culminated on July 1, 2021, when it was acquired by Affirm Holdings, Inc. The acquisition involved the purchase of substantially all of Yroo's assets, which were then operating under the eCommerce solution "Shopbrain," for a total of US$30 million in cash plus shares of Affirm's stock. Prior to its acquisition, Yroo had raised $11 million in a single seed funding round on August 11, 2016.