Pitch Deck: Constructor raises $25 million for AI search technology

Eli Finkelshteyn was reluctant to raise new funding for his startup Constructor, which develops AI-powered product search and discovery technology for e-commerce companies such as Bonobos and Sephora.

However, he always talks to investors regularly, and during one of the recent meetings, Sapphire Ventures partner Rajeev Dham asked Finkelshteyn if he would be open to talking to the company about his business.

Finkelshteyn, Constructor’s CEO and co-founder, said he told Dham he didn’t have a formal pitch plan prepared. But he had a deck that the company’s salespeople used to generate leads.

“He asked if I would be open to doing this using our sales presentation and some slides from our last board meeting. I thought, why not? I’ve never been good at pitching to investors and haven’t done it for years, so I thought I’ll probably get good practice and good feedback,” Finkelshteyn told Business Insider.

“Instead, I woke up the next morning with an investment offer and term sheet in my inbox.”

Sapphire led Constructor’s $25 million Series B, which also included participation from existing investor Silversmith Capital Partners. The Series B values the company at $550 million.

E-commerce companies use Constructor technology to show customers search results based on their browsing history. They can also create personalized product recommendations, landing pages and quizzes, and integrate the AI Constructor shopping assistant.

“We believe that placing artificial intelligence at the heart of our system from the very beginning has played a large role in the success we have been able to deliver to our customers, but we also believe that there is always room to provide them with a better service, and that is the most important thing we we want to leverage this investment,” Finkelshteyn said in a press release about the fundraising. He added that the company plans to use the funds obtained to expand functionality and expand into new regions.

Check out the sales deck presented by Sapphire Ventures: