Apex B2B raises £1.3m seed to build cloud-native commerce for mid-market wholesalers
This article covers Apex B2B, an ecommerce startup that has launched after raising £1.3m in a seed funding round to build a cloud-native commerce platform for mid-market wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers. The initiative aims to support mid-market merchants with annual revenues of £10m to £300m by providing an intermediate, AI-enabled commerce platform between entry-level retail tools and costly enterprise systems.
Apex B2B, an ecommerce startup, has launched after raising £1.3m in a seed funding round to build a cloud-native commerce platform for mid-market wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers — a segment the company says is stuck between entry-level ecommerce tools and costly enterprise systems. The funding and product reveal matter because mid-market merchants are widely seen as a large, underserved opportunity for modern, AI-enabled commerce infrastructure.
Why it matters
Mid-market B2B merchants often face a choice between simple retail-focused platforms that lack B2B workflows and heavyweight enterprise systems that are expensive and slow to deploy. Apex B2B targets firms with annual revenues of £10m to £300m, promising a middle ground that could reduce friction in ordering, inventory and customer management.
If the platform delivers on its claims, it could speed digital modernisation for wholesalers and distributors that still rely on manual processes or legacy systems. That has implications for margins, resilience and the speed at which these businesses can adopt AI-driven automation.
Inside the product
Apex B2B is positioned as a SaaS commerce platform combining cloud infrastructure, AI features and established B2B workflows. The company says the product focuses on core wholesale needs: streamlined ordering, operational efficiency and customer relationship management tailored to business customers.
The roadmap includes hires across product engineering, AI development, customer success, go-to-market and operations, with an initial plan to recruit 15 staff. The firm also plans to expand beyond the UK into European and US markets within five years, signalling ambitions to scale internationally once product-market fit is established.
Who are the investors?
Apex launched following a £1.3m seed funding round. The announcement does not disclose the investor names or lead backers. The capital is earmarked for product development, AI work and initial go-to-market hires that will support the company’s push into mid-market wholesale and distribution.
The business was incubated within digital commerce agency Monsoon Consulting and formally spun out after a soft launch in December 2025. That incubation route gives the company immediate commercial connections and practical experience from agency projects that informed the platform’s design.
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Founder perspective
Bharat Sharma, Founder and CEO of Apex B2B, said:
The UK wholesale sector is one of the most developed, but also one of the most operationally complex markets. What we consistently see is a structural gap where businesses are too advanced for basic tools but underserved by enterprise platforms.
In today’s environment, efficiency and resilience are no longer optional. Wholesalers need systems that allow them to operate leaner, respond faster and protect margins. Apex has been designed to address that by combining proven B2B workflows with modern cloud and AI capabilities.
Sharma’s remarks underline the company’s focus on practical operational gains rather than headline AI features alone.
The bigger picture
This deal joins a steady stream of early-stage bets on tools that target mid-market business customers rather than consumer retail. The approach reflects a broader trend of productising workflow knowledge—often accrued in agencies or consultancies—into verticalised SaaS offerings for underdigitised segments.
For the UK and European ecosystem, Apex’s spinout from Monsoon Consulting illustrates a common route to market: agency incubation followed by a seed round to productise and scale. How effectively the company can convert agency relationships into scalable revenue and expand into European and US markets will be a key test of whether this middle-market proposition can become a durable business.
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