The two firms signed a “multi-year platform partnership,” which gives the New York- and Tel Aviv-based firm early access to the Ottawa-headquartered company’s new development features. Shopify is investing US$30 million in Yotpo as part of the deal, sources told Globes. (The Logic, Globes)

Talking point: Yotpo makes SMS marketing, customer-review and loyalty features that integrate with Shopify’s e-commerce platform, and also with competitors like BigCommerce and Magento and online marketplaces like Walmart. The company raised US$230 million in a March Series F round that valued it at US$1.4 billion, according to PitchBook data. Shopify has introduced a number of its own marketing features in recent years, including an email tool in November 2019 after Mailchimp withdrew from its app store, as well as an affiliate system this June. The company is “mostly interested in marketing simplification, increasing the approachability of marketing rather than the actual industry of marketing automation,” CEO Tobi Lütke said on a February 2019 earnings call, adding, “This is one of those areas where we do not have, like, a world-domination ambition.” Instead, it’s starting to invest in companies that do have those goals.