commercetools Taps New Revenue and Partner Heavyweights to Scale Enterprise Growth

BOSTON, Jan. 6, 2026 – Digital commerce platform commercetools today announced two strategic executive appointments, signaling an aggressive push to convert its market momentum into global enterprise dominance. The company has named John Lentine, a veteran revenue leader from PTC, as its new Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), and Paul Applegate, formerly of Invoice Cloud, as its Vice President of Partners & Alliances.

The hires follow a period of significant expansion for the company in 2025, which saw its annualized Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) surge over 60% to more than $75 billion. By bringing in seasoned leadership focused on revenue execution and ecosystem growth, commercetools is fortifying its strategy to meet surging enterprise demand for flexible, scalable, and AI-ready commerce solutions.

"We've built a strong business by delivering results for leading B2C and B2B customers and working closely with partners across our ecosystem," said Doug McNary, Chief Executive Officer of commercetools. "John and Paul bring the experience to scale what's already working, expand our market position, and deepen our impact with enterprise customers globally."

A Playbook for Predictable Growth

The appointments are a clear move to instill a rigorous, execution-focused culture as the company scales. As CRO, John Lentine will take the helm of the global revenue organization, tasked with translating the platform's technical prowess into tangible commercial outcomes for a client roster that includes giants like Ulta Beauty, Sephora, and BMW.

Lentine's background is particularly noteworthy. He joins from industrial software leader PTC, where he was responsible for over $1 billion in annual recurring revenue across the Americas. His 17-year experience in managing complex enterprise sales and scaling go-to-market teams in highly technical environments aligns directly with commercetools' ambitions.

"The next phase of commerce will be defined by execution," Lentine stated. "That's what separates ambition from results. My focus is on building a revenue engine that helps enterprises scale unified and agentic commerce in a way that's predictable, repeatable, and commercially sound."

This emphasis on predictability and commercial soundness is critical as enterprises move beyond monolithic, legacy platforms. They are increasingly seeking agile, composable architectures that can adapt to rapid market changes, a trend that has propelled commercetools to a $1.9 billion valuation and consistent recognition as a "Leader" in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce for six consecutive years.

The Ecosystem as a Force Multiplier

Complementing the focus on direct revenue is a renewed investment in the partner ecosystem, to be led by Paul Applegate. In the world of composable commerce, where businesses assemble their technology stack from best-in-breed components, a robust network of system integrators (SIs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) is not just beneficial—it's essential.

Applegate's role is to expand and deepen these relationships. He brings a proven track record from Invoice Cloud, where he built and scaled a high-performing partner network. His mandate at commercetools includes driving joint programs that accelerate pipeline growth and, most importantly, deliver value to customers navigating complex digital transformations.

The strategic importance of this role is amplified by the industry's rapid pivot towards artificial intelligence. "Partners are a force multiplier as enterprises operationalize AI across commerce," said Applegate. "commercetools has built a strong enterprise foundation, and I'm excited to work with partners globally to help customers move faster, reduce complexity, and realize value from unified commerce at scale."

Composing the Future of AI-Driven Commerce

The new leadership arrives as commercetools solidifies its position at the vanguard of technological trends shaping the industry. The company's API-first, cloud-native platform is inherently designed for the flexibility required to integrate emerging technologies like generative and agentic AI. This architectural advantage is a key differentiator in a market where legacy systems struggle to keep pace.

Underscoring its commitment to this future, commercetools is a launch partner alongside Stripe and OpenAI for the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open standard designed to allow AI agents to securely interact with commerce systems. This positions its customers to be early participants in a future where AI-powered personal shoppers could automate discovery and purchasing.

Industry analysts have consistently lauded this forward-thinking approach. Forrester reports have described the platform as "new-school commerce tech" for the "digitally mature," and the company ranked highest for the Composable Commerce Use Case in Gartner's 2025 Critical Capabilities report. This technical leadership, combined with a client base that processed over 500 million orders last year and saw a 48% year-over-year growth in GMV during Cyber Week 2025, creates a powerful foundation for Lentine and Applegate to build upon.

With these strategic hires, commercetools is sending a clear message to the market: it has the technology, the market validation, and now the seasoned executive leadership to transition from a high-growth disruptor to a dominant force in enterprise digital commerce. The company is betting that combining its flexible, AI-ready platform with a disciplined, partner-centric growth strategy is the definitive formula for winning the next era of commerce.