Shopify raises $100 million Series C to expand offline into general commerce

Shopify has made its name and accumulated 80,000 businesses as customers by providing a simplified ecommerce and inventory system, but now it’s moving offline. The company is expected to announce a $100 million Series C funding round Thursday led by OMERS Ventures and Insight Venture Partners to provide offline commerce services for businesses.

Shopify may have begun seven years ago as an online store for three friends to sell snowboards. But as the company’s growth has exploded, so has its goal: becoming a giant of commerce, both on and off the web. Now the start-up is receiving a substantial amount of help in that aim.