SHOPLINE and Plug and Play Hosted "The Next Wave: Consumer Brand Showcase" in Beverly Hills

Invite-Only Demo Day Connecting Founders, Investors, and Operators Building the Next Generation of DTC Brands

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- SHOPLINE, in partnership with Plug and Play, hosted The Next Wave: Consumer Brand Showcase, an invite-only Demo Day that brought together founders, investors, and operators around the graduating cohort of the SHOPLINE × Plug and Play DTC Future of Commerce Accelerator. Held on Thursday, February 5, the event was designed as a working room for founders, investors, and operators to dig into how today's DTC brands launch, acquire customers efficiently, and scale with discipline across channels and categories.

"SHOPLINE is a commerce platform built for startups, with a mission to democratize complex e-commerce solutions so early-stage brands can access the same sophisticated tools as enterprise players," said Christopher Yang, Co-President of SHOPLINE. "Seeing the momentum from this showcase—and building on the impact we began in October—reinforced how powerful our partnership with Plug and Play has become. Together, we're giving founders the infrastructure, network, and confidence they need to scale with discipline from day one."

Inside the Showcase

The program was intentionally tight, operator-led, and built for real insight—not panels for panels' sake—and featured:

• Live pitch sessions from early- to growth-stage DTC brands
• Hands-on demos across food & beverage, beauty, wellness, lifestyle, and pet
• A keynote and executive panel with leaders who have scaled global consumer brands
• A networking reception designed for real conversations, not crowded conference floors

Keynote: Scaling a Global Brand

The evening opened with "Scaling a Global Brand: Lessons from Lululemon," led by Ravi Hampole, former Global Executive Creative Director and founding member of the Global Brand Leadership Team at Lululemon. Drawing on his experience helping scale the brand from $3B to over $11B in revenue, Ravi shared how brand, creativity, and operational rigor compound into durable growth.

Panel: From Concept to Consumer

"From Concept to Consumer: Lessons from the Frontlines" brought together leaders from L'Oreal, JustFab, and Million Dollar Baby Co. The conversation explored how brands move from early traction to sustained scale—across retail, marketplaces, and owned channels—without trading away brand clarity or margin.

Presenting Brands

The showcase featured a curated cohort of consumer brands across CPG, beauty, food & beverage, apparel, pet, and lifestyle, including:

PepCubes, HumanFood, Talons Collective, Timeless Pearl, Provanity Cosmetics, Pablo's Mate, New Wave Gelato, Granolaful, Deja Bru, Cleaner Standards, Empress, Swift Hockey, Roots Kitchen & Cannery, N/UM, and Friends & Family Pet Food.

Together, the cohort reflected where the consumer landscape is heading: category-defining products, sharper positioning, and disciplined, channel-native growth.

Taylor Anderson, Founder and CEO of Provanity Cosmetics shared: "Plug and Play's collaborative accelerator program with Shopline gave my company, Provanity Cosmetics, so many important resources that have yet to be available to me in my home state. Participating in the pitch event in LA introduced me to contacts I thought I was years away from receiving, and I'm grateful for how much I've grown as a founder through the experience."

Tarek, Founder of Granolaful shared: "PNP and Shopline came together to provide a best in class accelerator that covered everything from best operational and marketing practices, to having a robust D2C system for scale. The marketing experts helped us completely rethink our brand positioning, as well as our GTM strategy. These four weeks transformed the future of our business and have equipped us with the core skill sets we need for tomorrow's competitive landscape."

Joshua Erret, Founder and CEO of Friends & Family Pet Food Company: "I came into the Shopline program feeling overwhelmed by how complicated e-commerce has become. I left with clarity and confidence. The combination of strategic overview and hands-on practice was exactly what I needed - I now feel equipped to actually execute, not just understand."

About the Accelerator

The SHOPLINE × Plug and Play DTC Future of Commerce Accelerator supports early- to growth-stage consumer brands with mentorship, infrastructure, and practical guidance across commerce, operations, and go-to-market execution—anchored by SHOPLINE's unified, omnichannel commerce platform and social-commerce-native tools.

About SHOPLINE

Founded in 2013, SHOPLINE is a leading global commerce Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider, empowering brands and retailers to build, launch and scale their business around the world. SHOPLINE offers a fully integrated platform that provides merchants with solutions such as ecommerce, POS, social commerce, omni-channel marketing, B2B management, and more. Brands are also empowered to create custom integrations and unique shopping experiences with SHOPLINE's open platform architecture, comprehensive APIs, and extensive global partner network. SHOPLINE is headquartered in Singapore with over 2000 employees operating globally. Learn more at www.shopline.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE SHOPLINE