Layers closes first funding round led by LOI Venture
What's the deal? Layers, an AI-powered search, visual discovery, and merchandising platform built exclusively for Shopify Plus, has closed its first funding round led by LOI VentureDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — the $20M fund co-founded by Hootsuite founder Ryan Holmes and angel investor Manny Padda. The specific funding amount was not disclosed.
The capital will go toward product development, engineering hires, and scaling go-to-market efforts across the Shopify Plus ecosystem.
Layers grew out of Proton, a Shopify Plus engineering studio founded by Jake Casto that has shipped more than 400 storefronts. What started as an internal tool to bridge the gap between Shopify's default search and legacy enterprise platforms became a standalone product. Lukas Tanasiuk joined as co-founder to lead commercial operations.
Why now? The company is betting on two shifts happening simultaneously. First, AI is changing how shoppers discover products — through intent-based search, camera search, and "Shop the Look" features. Second, and more speculative, is agentic commerce: a model where AI agents search, compare, and buy products on behalf of consumers.
"Most search and merchandising platforms in our category were built for a version of e-commerce that no longer exists," said Casto. "They were designed before AI changed how shoppers find products, and before agents started doing the shopping themselves."
Layers' pitch is that incumbent platforms are platform-agnostic by design, which means they lack native support for Shopify-specific features like metafields, bundles, and combined listings. Shopify Plus brands end up paying enterprise prices for tools that don't understand their stack.
What could go wrong? Layers is entering a category dominated by established players that haven't faced a serious challenger in over a decade — which cuts both ways. Those incumbents have deep integrations, large customer bases, and resources to add AI features of their own. Shopify itself could also expand its native search capabilities, narrowing the gap Layers is trying to fill.
The agentic commerce thesis, while compelling as a long-term vision, remains largely theoretical. Building infrastructure for AI shopping agents is a bet on a future that hasn't fully materialised.
The signal: Layers reflects a broader pattern in e-commerce software: the unbundling of generic enterprise tools into platform-native solutions. As Shopify Plus grows its share of the enterprise market, the opportunity for Shopify-first tooling grows with it.
The agentic commerce angle is worth watching. If AI agents do become meaningful buyers, the platforms that structure product data for machine readability — not just human browsing — will have a significant advantage. Layers is positioning early for that shift, even if the timeline remains uncertain.
"Search and merchandising is one of the highest-leverage layers in commerce, and it is being reshaped right now by AI and the rise of agentic shopping," said Padda.
Read more: RetailWire
