eZdia is raising a Crowd SAFE at a $18 million valuation cap. Based solely on eZdia’s recent revenue (almost $4 million in 2019) and purported ownership of an AI content conversion platform, this price might seem reasonable. However, more context casts doubt on the worthiness of this valuation. eZdia has been in existence since 2008, so the company has been slow to scale meaningfully. Moreover, it’s not clear that eZdia actually offers a sophisticated tech platform. It seems as though the eZdia software is actually rather basic, and that eZdia’s business model is rooted in paying freelancers to optimize content for clients — not a particularly scalable approach. Therefore, eZdia’s price rating is its lowest.

The entire e-commerce market is undoubtedly huge. Shoppers spent over $9 trillion while buying online in 2019 alone — not counting the dramatic increase in online purchases due to the pandemic. However, eZdia is very unlikely to capture a significant portion of this market. The company has successfully won business from major e-commerce players like Amazon and Walmart, but it’s unclear exactly why these giants find value in simple freelance content optimization services. It’s likely that content optimization is a major priority for them, and an in-house tool could easily replace eZdia. On the other end of the market, millions of small businesses sell wares online, but they likely experience less pain from countless product pages and can handle optimizations in-house. It’s unclear exactly which segment of the market eZdia can best serve. Therefore, the company’s market rating is relatively low. 

eZdia was founded by Deepak Goyal and Rahul Shah. Goyal, the company’s CEO, received undergraduate and graduate degrees from universities in India before joining several U.S. companies as a software engineer or solutions architect. Goyal’s past companies include Cisco, Bank of America, and J.P. Morgan Chase. Shah, eZdia’s CTO, also has a technical background. After receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees in India, Shah served as a developer for Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and VMware. Both Goyal and Shah appear to have been working full-time on eZdia since at least 2012. 

In addition to Goyal and Shah, eZdia is advised by and employs experienced e-commerce leaders. Ken Burke was the founder of MarketLive, an e-commerce software platform that served major enterprise clients. Burke appears to assist with sales part-time for eZdia, in addition to sitting on the board. Brad Curtis, eZdia’s VP of Global Sales and Strategic Accounts, has worked in e-commerce on and off for more than 20 years, including a stint at Burke’s company MarketLive. 

eZdia’s founding team has strong technical expertise, but lacks formal business or entrepreneurship experience. This gap is filled by e-commerce executives like Burke and Curtis, who lend years of experience serving clients like Amazon and Walmart. All in all, the eZdia team is well-rounded and knowledgeable about the e-commerce space. Therefore, the company’s team rating is its highest. 

It’s somewhat difficult to assess eZdia’s differentiators because it’s difficult to understand the company’s precise value proposition. As a software platform to analyze e-commerce product pages, eZdia faces stiff competition from the likes of Salsify and Syndigo, both reputable enterprise e-commerce solutions with robust technology. As a network of freelancers trained to optimize content, eZdia competes against major talent marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork, both of which feature hundreds — if not thousands — of professionals who could contract directly with eZdia’s potential clients.

Moreover, eZdia’s website and marketing materials don’t position eZdia as a major, trusted e-commerce content platform. The company’s brand is more reminiscent of a local digital marketing agency than a “AI-backed” tech company. Therefore, eZdia likely finds it difficult to compete against companies with more sophisticated product offerings. For all of these reasons, eZdia’s differentiation score is relatively low. 

eZdia has been in business for at least eight years, though company officers legally joined the company as early as 2008. Since founding, the company has reportedly generated $20 million in revenue. Almost $4 million of this revenue was generated in 2019, with similar revenue ($4.1 million) in 2018. 

eZdia is currently operating at a loss — though a relatively slim loss compared to revenue. In 2019, the company’s net income was -$158,039. In 2018, eZdia’s net income was even closer to profit at -$15,209. 

Investors should notice that eZdia’s revenue did not exhibit significant growth between 2018 and 2019. In fact, revenues declined slightly over those years (2020 financial data is not available). When revenues declined in 2019, eZdia’s net loss was also significantly larger than that of 2018. It appears as though eZdia underwent some revision in its business model in 2019, which is not discussed in eZdia’s raise materials. 

That being said, eZdia has generated an impressive amount of revenue in recent years, with a long history of growth since its bootstrapped founding between 2008-2012. Therefore, eZdia’s performance rating is relatively high. 

It is difficult to understand exactly what eZdia does: do clients receive access to a sophisticated, supposedly AI-assisted tech platform to analyze and optimize e-commerce product pages? Or is the eZdia product simply a dashboard to facilitate freelancers’ manual work improving content on those pages? While eZdia’s raise materials focus largely on technology, the company does mention leveraging a large network of freelancers. Significant payroll costs seem to prove the service-based business model. 

Assuming that eZdia is indeed a service business at its core, the company may struggle to scale to an extent that would create meaningful upside for investors, particularly given the company’s high valuation in this raise. Costs associated with employing freelance content optimizers will continue to pace with revenue, potentially preventing eZdia from generating significant profit. Moreover, eZdia’s hands-on approach could easily be replaced by more sophisticated tech platforms that can actually deliver on the promise of AI-assisted content analysis and optimization (which could even be built in-house by the likes of Walmart or Amazon). While eZdia’s revenue figures are notable, the company may struggle to grow beyond its current plateau.

eZdia markets an audacious vision: using AI and a robust software platform to parse millions of e-commerce product pages and suggest targeted optimizations to boost conversion rate. This product is undoubtedly needed. Millions or even billions of e-commerce product pages exist on the internet, and many are poorly optimized for providing information that can convince customers to buy. 

If eZdia can realize this vision by using the proceeds from this fundraise to invest meaningfully in its tech platform (with the goal of relying more heavily on a SaaS business model rather than a service-based one), it may well succeed. The company already has relationships with e-commerce giants like Walmart and Amazon, and its many years of operation combined with significant revenue are a testament to the founding teams’ experience in this market. The extra power of a software platform that lives up to eZdia’s pitch might drive more revenue — even profit — for the company as well as returns for investors. 

eZdia helps e-commerce sellers optimize their many product pages for conversion. As companies struggle to manage the intimidating need to monitor and update a massive fleet of product pages, eZdia offers a managed solution to identify areas of improvement, implement changes, and monitor results. The company’s pitch clearly resonates with sellers and marketplaces. eZdia boasts Walmart and Amazon among its clients and generated roughly $4 million in revenue per year in 2018-2019. 

On the other hand, eZdia’s business model appears to be rooted in service. The company does offer a tech platform to organize sellers’ product pages, but analysis and optimization appears to be done manually by a large network of freelancers. This business model is unlikely to scale, and therefore eZdia may struggle to grow beyond its current revenue pace. The company’s high valuation means that meaningful growth is required for investors to realize an upside. Therefore, eZdia has been rated a Neutral Deal.

For questions regarding the KingsCrowd staff pick or ratings for this company, please reach out to support@kingscrowd.com. 

Analysis written by Katy Dolan.