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Mirakl, a French online shopping software start-up, has raised $ 555 million from investors in the latest sign of how the Covid-19 pandemic has boosted e-commerce.

The investment, which was led by U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake, values ​​nine-year-old Mirakl at around $ 3.5 billion, a jump from its valuation of $ 1.5 billion at the time of ” a fundraiser in September 2020.

Mirakl sells software to companies, such as retailers Carrefour and Best Buy and industry groups Toyota and ABB, which enables them to operate online marketplaces that connect customers to merchants.

These markets allow retailers to significantly expand their product offering without directly owning all of the inventory, and are also increasingly adopted by non-retailers.

For example, the hotel group Accor uses the Mirakl software to manage a marketplace where its franchisees can buy supplies ranging from furniture to bath towels, and L’Oréal uses it to manage a marketplace for hair salons. and professional beauty.

Philippe Corrot, chief executive and co-founder, told the Financial Times that the investment would help Mirakl launch a hiring wave, strengthen its tech offering and potentially start making acquisitions.

“The next logical step will be an initial public offering, but it is too early to say when we will consider this,” he said.

Silver Lake, which focuses on technology and has invested in Airbnb, Waymo and Expedia, contributed the majority of the round, Mirakl said. Previous investors, including Permira, 83North and Bain Capital, had also all participated to avoid being diluted.

Behind Mirakl’s rapid growth is the realization among mainstream retailers that they must turn to outside vendors to increase their product offerings sold online, or risk being crushed by pioneering Amazon. of strategy with its own market.

The pandemic, which has led to frequent shortages of goods from bicycles to toys, has also shown how markets can help businesses respond to changing demand faster and secure more stable supplies.

“Our customers are competing with Amazon and we bring them the back-office software to manage their marketplaces,” Corrot explained. “Trying to follow Amazon today without a marketplace is just impossible.”

The Parisian start-up has seen the gross value of transactions processed on its marketplaces rise from $ 3 billion last year to more than $ 5 billion this year, he added. “The growth is colossal,” he said.

To keep pace, Mirakl plans to add 1,700 workers over the next three years. Today it employs 560 people, software development being carried out by 350 programmers in Paris and Bordeaux.

Mirakl is one of a group of fast growing start-ups in France that have been raising funds at a rapid pace this year. Earlier Tuesday, Sorare won the biggest fundraiser ever in France, worth $ 680 million, from Softbank as she seeks to turn her digital football cards into a big business, and ContentSquare also raised $ 500 million from Softbank in May.

Such mega-towers were once rare in France. The country still lags the UK and Germany in terms of venture capital investments in start-ups every year, although its tech ecosystem has grown in recent years. More and more of its start-ups have achieved “unicorn” status, with valuations of over a billion. France is now home to 23, according to a Dealroom-Sifted report published in July, compared to 100 in the United Kingdom and 43 in Germany.

While tech announcements remain much rarer in France than in the US or UK, a few have been launched this year, including digital music company Believe. The debut of cloud computing provider OVH and cybersecurity player Exclusive Networks are expected in the coming weeks.