Bigcommerce Names Former Groupon COO Kal Raman to Board of Directors

AUSTIN, Texas — January 21, 2015 — Bigcommerce, the ecommerce platform of choice for fast-growing brands, announced that Kal Raman, CEO of SolutionStar and former executive at Amazon, Drugstore.com and Groupon, has joined the company’s board of directors. In this role, Raman will work closely with Bigcommerce’s executive leadership team to help the company scale its business, platform and market presence while capitalizing on opportunities spurred by the massive worldwide growth in online retail.

Raman has served in executive leadership roles at several of the biggest online retailers in the world. Under his leadership, Groupon’s stock price increased 41 percent and revenue grew to $1.9 billion. As part of the founding team at Drugstore.com where Raman served as CEO and CTO, he lead the company to net sales of $84.3 million in its first five years while helping the company hone its retail and growth strategies. Raman brings a wealth of ecommerce expertise to the Bigcommerce board during a period of significant growth for the company. Bigcommerce announced a $50 million Series D round of funding in November 2014, and is investing in international expansion.

“Bigcommerce is kicking off 2015 with incredible partnerships with companies like Alibaba.com, EIG and Intuit, and a product roadmap that puts the company in a leadership position for omni-channel commerce and real-time analytics,” said Raman. “Eddie and team are on a mission to enable brands of all sizes to compete and succeed on a global scale, and I’m excited to be part of that.”

Under Raman’s guidance and leadership, SolutionStar is building an online real estate engine that will help the industry become more efficient. At Groupon, Raman guided the company to become one of the most successful ecommerce retailers to offer online and offline experiences at a discounted price. While at Amazon, he worked under Jeff Bezos as senior vice president of marketing and retail technology, aligning the company’s online platform and customer experience. He launched his career at Wal-Mart, where he specialized in IT for the company’s U.S. and Brazil regions.

“Kal’s experience with some of the most successful companies in ecommerce will help guide us through our next phase of growth,” said Eddie Machaalani, Bigcommerce co-founder and CEO. “He has an amazing track record of making calculated investments that accelerate the entire business and provides the clarity of direction necessary to execute at lightning speed. He’s also an incredible human being who will add much more than just business strategy to Bigcommerce.”

Raman has a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Anna University. In his personal time, he gives back to the Tamil Nadu's Mannarakoil village in India where he grew up; Raman has built five schools and currently provides room and board for 96,000 children in the village.