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Our Investment in nFuse

Most B2B software fails at the last meter.

You can build the most sophisticated ordering portal in the world and still watch a corner shop owner ignore it completely because they’re already in a WhatsApp thread with their distributor, typing out an order in broken shorthand.

That gap, between what enterprise software expects and how real commerce actually works, is one Stoyan Ivanov and Stefan Radov know all too well. Between them, they spent over 30 years at Coca-Cola watching it play out firsthand. It’s also what led them to build nFuse.

We’re excited to back them in this next chapter, alongside our friends from LAUNCHub!

A Problem Hiding in Plain Sight

There’s a quiet inefficiency at the heart of FMCG distribution. It doesn’t make headlines, but it costs the industry hundreds of billions every year.

Fragmented trade – the kiosks, restaurants, independent grocers, and small retailers that collectively represent over $5 trillion in global purchasing value – is still largely managed by human field sales reps. These reps carry 100–150 accounts each. They visit maybe 80 locations a month. And they spend only 25–40% of their time actually selling. The rest goes to order entry, travel, and admin.

When a rep leaves (and with turnover reaching 30% annually, many do), they take their relationships with them. Accounts go cold. Revenue drops. And the cycle starts over.

The obvious fix, B2B e-commerce portals, has largely failed to solve this. Adoption rates sit below 15% industry-wide. The portals were built for headquarters, not for a retailer standing behind a counter who needs to restock before the weekend rush.

"The industry built and designed eB2B* for headquarters. Not for the retailer standing behind a counter who just needs to reorder beer before the weekend rush."

Stoyan Ivanov

CEO & Co-founder, nFuse

The Insight That Changed Everything

This wasn’t a problem Stoyan and Stefan discovered from the outside. They spent a decade watching it unfold from within one of the world’s largest FMCG companies.

Over that time at Coca-Cola, they built B2B portals and digital commerce infrastructure across Europe and Africa. Stoyan was part of the core team leading Coca-Cola’s AI adoption program in partnership with OpenAI and Bain. Stefan ran the company’s global loyalty platform and spent years trying to get merchants across Europe to actually adopt digital ordering tools – learning firsthand why most of them wouldn’t.

They had the network. They had the insight. And they had the conviction that the answer wasn’t another portal.

"They don't want another app. They want to order the same way they message their family."

Stefan Radov

COO & Co-founder, nFuse

Both left Coca-Cola at different points, but the frustration stayed with them. In 2024, they reconnected with a shared goal: to finally solve the problem they’d seen fail from the inside. Their mission is to meet merchants where they already are.

What nFuse Does

nFuse is an AI-native B2B commerce layer built specifically for FMCG fragmented trade. It enables distributors and producers to receive and process orders through the channels their clients already use – WhatsApp, Viber, email, voice. With no app downloads, no portal logins, and no behavior change required from the buyer.

The AI agent understands context and intent. A merchant can send a voice note, a photo of a handwritten list, or a picture of an empty shelf, and nFuse converts it into a verified, structured order, processed automatically.

But it doesn’t just receive orders. It drives revenue:

Suggestive ordering based on purchase history and inventory patterns, nFuse prompts the right next order at the right time
Cross-sell and upsell proactive promotions and product recommendations tailored to each outlet
Reactivation dormant or underserved accounts that a rep would never have time to call get re-engaged automatically
Trade marketing execution campaigns and promotions pushed directly through the same channels merchants already live in

The platform is FMCG-native by design: it understands SKU hierarchies, trade terms, promotional mechanics, and loyalty logic. It’s multilingual and built to go live in under a week, compared to the 12–18 months typically required by legacy B2B platforms. To date, over €50 million in orders have already been processed through it.

Why This Market, Why Now

The timing isn’t coincidental.

FMCG companies are under pressure from all sides. Energy and oil prices are impacting up to 35% of the value chain, while consumer confidence and disposable incomes continue to decline – squeezing top-line growth. In this environment, efficiency and cost optimization aren’t strategic initiatives. They’re in survival mode. Brands need to extract more value from existing distribution, not pour money into another 18-month transformation project.

Meanwhile, B2B buyers now use an average of ten interaction channels in their purchasing journey, up from five in 2016. More than half expect to switch seamlessly across all of them. E-commerce has overtaken in-person sales as the top revenue-generating channel for companies that offer it. And 19% of B2B sales forces are already implementing gen AI with measurable results, with another 23% actively experimenting. Data-driven commercial teams that blend personalization with gen AI are 1.7x more likely to grow market share.

The global generative AI market in FMCG is projected to grow from $7.9 billion in 2023 to $57.7 billion by 2033.

The infrastructure is ready. The buyer behavior has shifted. And fragmented trade, the segment historically left behind by every wave of B2B tech, is finally ripe for transformation.

Why We Backed nFuse

We back founders who know their problem from the inside. Stoyan and Stefan experienced firsthand why traditional B2B platforms fail to gain traction. That hard-won insight puts them in a category of their own in this space. For us, this investment sits at the intersection of three areas we know well: AI, ecommerce, and FMCG.

"Stoyan and Stefan know the FMCG industry inside out. nFuse doesn't try to replace how merchants operate, it works with it. That's what unlocks enormous opportunities for the tail of the market."

Ivaylo Simov

Partner, Eleven Ventures

The B2B e-commerce graveyard is real. Platforms built with good intentions but wrong assumptions litter the space. What makes nFuse different is the founding insight: don’t fight how merchants operate, amplify it. Use AI to make the existing channel, a WhatsApp message, a voice note, a quick photo, intelligent.

What's Next

nFuse is live with customers across the FMCG sector and expanding its footprint across Europe and beyond. The roadmap points toward a fully integrated AI sales layer: voice ordering, web portal sync, and the ability to place an order simply by scanning a shelf.

The five-year ambition is clear: make nFuse the default sales layer between every FMCG brand and every independent outlet, not just in Bulgaria or CEE, but across every fragmented market where the old boots-on-the-ground model is hitting its limits.

That’s a very large category. And Stoyan and Stefan are exactly the right people to go after it.

Welcome to the Eleven family, nFuse! 🤝

*eB2B (electronic B2B commerce): the use of digital channels, platforms, and tools to manage sales, ordering, and communication between businesses, rather than relying on in-person reps or manual processes.