E-commerce enablement startups help online merchants manage all aspects of the buyer journey and provide technologies spanning prepurchase product discovery, purchase venues, purchase mediums, postpurchase experiences, and horizontal platforms. This ecosystem boasts tremendous technological diversity, covering both B2B and direct-to-consumer business models, and is interwoven with adjacent verticals, such as financial technology (fintech), supply chain technology, and artificial intelligence & machine learning. Q2 2023 VC deal activity extended a QoQ deceleration dating back to the end of 2021. In Q2, VC investment totaled $1.9 billion, the lowest such figure since Q4 2018 ($2.0 billion).1 Nevertheless, several significant developments occurred in Q2 2023. US consumer spending was healthy but did slow, increasing only 0.1%, while the rate of inflation also cooled.2 In May, e-commerce sales increased 5.0% YoY, and consumers were provided with a degree of inflation relief, according to the Signifyd US E-Commerce Price Index.3 In July, retail sales beat expectations by increasing 0.7%. Global supply chain pressure continued to decrease, despite a moderate uptick toward the end of the quarter.4