What Handshake does

Handshake is a privately held B2B eCommerce platform headquartered in New York and founded in 2011, serving manufacturers and distributors that want to grow business through both online and in-person wholesale trade. The firm's self-description frames the offering as a platform that powers digital and physical wholesale operations between upstream suppliers and downstream buyers (retailers and B2B accounts), implying functionality across product catalog, ordering, pricing, and distribution workflows typical of a wholesale commerce platform. The disclosed website is handshake.com and the company operates with a team of 51-100 employees.

Handshake has raised capital across multiple rounds from a roster of B2B- and SaaS-focused investors. According to the funding history, the company closed a $1.5 million seed round on 2012-11-20 backed by boldstart ventures, MHS Capital, Primary Venture Partners, and Uncork Capital; an $8 million Series A on 2014-03-31 led by Emergence Capital; and a $14 million Series B on 2016-03-17 led by Sozo Ventures with participation from boldstart ventures, Emergence Capital, MHS Capital, Point Nine, Primary Venture Partners, and Uncork Capital. No pricing model, customer count, GMV, ARR, or post-2016 funding events are disclosed in the input, and the company's monetization mechanics (subscription, transaction fee, GMV take-rate, or hybrid) are not specified.

Note on data integrity: the aggregated source material also contains references to an unrelated entity styled "Handshake Speakeasy," described as a cocktail bar ranked #2 on The World's 50 Best Bars list with cruise-line and luxury-hotel partnerships. That material appears to relate to a separate business sharing the Handshake name and is not the subject of this analysis; all assessments below are scoped to the B2B eCommerce platform indicated by the firmographic data, website, employee count, and funding history.

Name

Handshake

Website

https://handshake.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Handshake is a New York-based B2B eCommerce platform, founded in 2011, that helps manufacturers and distributors power online and in-person wholesale trade with retailers. Privately held, with 51-100 employees and backing from B2B-focused venture investors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

B2B Ecommerce Software

akta.pro primary industry

Omnichannel Commerce & Click-and-Collect Platforms (BPAMAGAL)

Keywords

• B2b ecommerce platform
• Wholesale ecommerce software
• Manufacturer distribution software
• Order management software
• Trade commerce platform

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Core offering

Handshake is a B2B eCommerce platform that helps manufacturers and distributors grow their business by powering in-person and online trade. The platform enables brands and their wholesale partners to manage and transact trade orders across digital and physical channels.

Product overview

Handshake (referenced in the source data as Handshake Speakeasy) is a cocktail bar and speakeasy establishment. Based on the source material, it operates as a bar ranked #2 on The World's 50 Best Bars list. It engages in partnerships with hotels and cruise lines for cocktail pop-up events and beverage collaborations. The source data does not contain technology product information for this company.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Handshake B2B eCommerce Platform

Named customers2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DCcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 March 2026Handshake Speakeasy conducted a two-night cocktail pop-up at Bourbon Steak DC (Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC) on March 27-28, 2026, as part of the hotel's spring cherry blossom season programming. The pop-up was timed to coincide with the National Cherry Blossom Festival.
• Princess CruisescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPrincess Cruises has partnered with Handshake Speakeasy for cocktail collaborations as part of their evolving onboard food and beverage program. This partnership includes Handshake Speakeasy cocktail collaborations within the cruise line's specialty dining and beverage offerings, contributing to their measurable success with fleetwide net promoter scores growing 23% since 2023.

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Direct peers

• Joor: Joor is a B2B wholesale marketplace and order management platform focused on fashion and lifestyle brands selling to retailers worldwide, with comparable digital-showroom and trade-show functionality to Handshake.
• Ankorstore: Ankorstore is a European B2B marketplace connecting independent retailers with brands and wholesalers, offering a comparable wholesale enablement stack (online ordering, logistics, payments) to Handshake.
• BigCommerce B2B Edition: BigCommerce's B2B Edition is a headless commerce platform purpose-built for manufacturers and distributors selling wholesale online, with feature parity to Handshake's online-trade capabilities.
• RangeMe: RangeMe is a B2B product-discovery platform that connects retailers and buyers with suppliers and brands, addressing the same upstream manufacturer/distributor-to-retailer sourcing workflow targeted by Handshake.
• Faire: Faire is a wholesale marketplace and B2B platform that connects brands and manufacturers with independent retailers, offering both online ordering and trade-show-based discovery — directly comparable to Handshake's mission of powering in-person and online trade for manufacturers and distributors.
• RepSpark: RepSpark is a B2B wholesale ordering and digital-showroom platform built for apparel brands and manufacturers selling to retailers — a more vertical but functionally comparable peer to Handshake's in-person + online trade thesis.
• NuOrder (Shopify): NuOrder is a B2B wholesale platform enabling brands and manufacturers to manage digital showrooms, line sheets, and orders with retailers — a near-identical use case to Handshake's, now part of the Shopify B2B ecosystem.

Broad incumbents

• Shopify (B2B): Shopify's B2B offering (including wholesale channel, ShopApp, B2B catalogs, and NuOrder) provides end-to-end commerce for brands and manufacturers selling to retailers — an overlapping yet broader incumbent solution to Handshake's B2B platform.
• Alibaba.com: Alibaba.com is the global incumbent B2B commerce platform connecting manufacturers and wholesalers with buyers worldwide — a much larger but adjacent competitor serving the same manufacturer-to-buyer trade flow.
• Mirakl: Mirakl is an enterprise marketplace and dropship platform that powers B2B commerce for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers — broader in scope than Handshake but serving many of the same wholesale enablement use cases.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/handshake
• Facebookfacebook.com/HandshakeApp
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/handshake-corp

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors8 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Handshake