Data Sets
From computer vision-driven technologies aimed at cutting down on apparel returns by enabling consumers to utilize advanced sizing tech to artificial intelligence (“AI”) and machine learning-driven software that helps to prevent counterfeiting, piracy, and digital impersonators, companies across the retail segment are introducing new tools that make fashion commerce – and retail more broadly – “more nimble, sustainable, and engaging for shoppers.” At the same time, the striking rise of e-commerce, especially in the wake of the pandemic, and the post-pandemic call for companies to provide consumers with “an exponentially deeper level of engagement [both] online and offline,” per McKinsey, has led to the rise of an array of B2B SaaS solutions-providers that are looking to help transform the retail segment.
Research published by Google’s Cloud business in November 2020 (and reported by Wired) revealed that retailers were “looking to use AI within ten different areas of their business – from demand prediction to customer loyalty schemes and product personalization.” More recently, McKinsey stated in 2021 that “the operational potential of technology is becoming ever more apparent,” with fashion companies that embed AI into their businesses models now – in order to “enable new logistics and sales-fulfillment options (such as click-and-collect and drive-through), fuel innovative ways of customer acquisition, help predict and manage inventory to create a more resilient supply chain,” etc. – standing to see “a 118 percent cumulative increase in cash flow by 2030.” On the other hand, the consultancy stated that companies that “are slower to invest in digital technology will lag behind, and could see a 23 percent relative decline.” As for the market, itself, Meticulous Research expects the value of the AI-in-retail market, alone, to reach $19 billion by 2027.
Against this background and in light of enduring efforts to bring new tech to the retail market, we have compiled a tracker of funding and M&A to provide a broad overview of tech-centric investments in fashion and the broader retail space, and shed light on what the trajectory of this segment of the market looks like more broadly …
Fortis has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Opportunity Venture (Asia). The Dubai-based retail tech and fintech solutions firm, which works with SMEs and entrepreneurs to manage offline and online transactions, streamline orders and implement personalized loyalty programs, will use the new funds to “fuel its expansion and forge new partnerships.” Fortis founder and CEO Alberto Caruso said, “We are thrilled to have secured this significant investment, which will enable us to accelerate our growth and deliver even greater value to businesses in the MENA region.”
OmniRetail has raised new funds from Goodwell Investment. The Lagos, Nigeria-based provider of a B2B e-commerce platform that digitizes sub-Saharan Africa’s informal supply chains says that it aims to “accelerate Trade value chain stakeholders’ progress by unlocking access to services and the flow of working capital. “Africa deserves a robust digital infrastructure layered on top of the existing informal retail – the impact of which cannot be overstated. As the largest employer and the only ecosystem that can truly ensure efficient distribution of essential goods, healthcare, and financial inclusion – informal retail plays a very important role in the economies we want to transform,” said Archit Bagaria, head of investments at OmniRetail.
Veesual has raised $7.5 million in a Seed round led by AVP (AXA Venture Partners) and Techstars. The Paris-based AI-powered virtual try-on platform for the fashion industry says that it will use the new funds to fuel growth, including by stepping up its international presence by opening a U.S. office and extending to new markets in the U.S. At the same time, the Maxime Patte and Damien Meurisse co-founded company says it “will be rapidly improving our product suits through the unique technology that we developed, our clients will enjoy even more flexibility and be able to use solutions that allow them or their shoppers to create seamless looks.”
Patte said in a statement, “The global fashion ecosystem is undergoing a seismic shift right now. The industry is increasingly focused on sustainable production, a better, more relevant buying experience and upcycling as a new standard. At Veesual, we’re meeting those changes by drastically improving how shoppers buy online which creates a more inclusive retail experience while also improving fit and reducing waste.”
The Provenance Chain Network has closed the first tranche of its Series A round, raising $4 million to bring its total funding to date to more than $12 million. The Portland, OR-based company “enables businesses to document and share their products’ origin and [lifecycle] stories with customers, manufacturers, suppliers, regulators, shareholders, and consumers while introducing, measuring, and verifying activities within their supply chains.” Founder and CEO Jeff Gaus said in a statement, “Many industries are looking for ways to satisfy their need for managing verifiable credentials for the people, places, products, and processes of their supply chains for better visibility and resiliency.”
KIKI has raised $7 million in an initial funding round from investors, including a16z crypto and The Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures, as well as Double Down, 2Punks Capital and Advancit, digital communities RedDao and OrangeDao, and the digital creator GMoney. The Los Angeles-based community commerce company says that “using its proprietary platform and blockchain infrastructure, [it] has created a new way for consumers to connect with each other and brands outside of the historical web2 channels and social media.”
“Brand websites are valuable for not only selling but also educating, and KIKI’s innovative platform strategically takes brand.com capabilities a step further to leverage community and drive creativity as trends rapidly emerge. KIKI sees the internet and the communities it connects as the engine that creates, not merely consumes, the brands and products that will define the next generation, and is building tools to make this elevated customer experience a reality,” said KIKI co-founders Jana Bobosikova, Brendon Garner, and Ricky Chan.
Spresso has raised “an initial Series A investment” from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock to help “accelerate the company’s global expansion, empowering businesses with a comprehensive suite of data-driven tools to optimize growth, profitability, and operations.” The New York-based provider of AI-powered solutions that empower businesses to optimize pricing, streamline operations, and drive growth in a dynamic e-commerce landscape says that investment “underscores the growing demand for integrated e-commerce solutions,” noting that its “proven track record attracts a diverse clientele, including major international retailers like the AEON Group, Fortune 500 companies, and prominent consumer brands.”
Flip has raised $144 million in a Series C funding round led by Streamlined Ventures with participation from previous investors Mubadala Capital and WestCap, and AppLovin Corporation, bringing its valuation to $1.05 billion. The Palo Alto-based social shopping platform enables consumers to “discover, learn and shop their favorite brands all in one place,” while also allowing them to “share and monetize video reviews.” Flip CEO Noir Agha said, “With the recent launch of our MagicOS ads manager, and now the upcoming launch of our advertising powered by AXON, we are confident we can help tens of thousands of brands find the right customer profitably. We are thrilled to have continued support from our investors and to add AppLovin to the mix.”
Ikas has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Re-Pie Asset Management. The Turkish “next-generation e-commerce platform” boasts an e-commerce platform that “enables SMEs and entrepreneurs to open e-commerce sites without technical knowledge, making it possible to sell to the whole world by offering the opportunity to manage e-export processes.” Ikas founding partner and CEO Mustafa Namoğlu said, “In just two years, we have become one of the most important players in the e-commerce infrastructure market in Türkiye. With this investment, we aim to make Turkish SMEs more competitive abroad and to make them sector leaders in Europe and other developing markets.”
Fluid Topics, has raised €15 million in a Series B funding round led by Kennet Partners. The Lyon, France-based company, which boasts an AI-powered digital platform to automate customer service, said the round will enable it to “reinforce [its] premier position on the market by scaling operations across the United States and leveraging the potential of artificial intelligence in customer support applications.”
Uzum has raised upwards of $100 million in funding through a combination of a Series A round ($52 million) and debt financing ($62 million) led by the global venture capital firm FinSight Ventures. The Tashkent, Uzbekistan-based digital services ecosystem company says that it is “developing a digital services ecosystem to facilitate business growth, online shopping, convenient payments, and help with other day-to-day household tasks.” Djasur Djumaev-founded and led Uzum said in a statement, “Combining e-commerce, fintech and banking services for individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises, the Uzum digital ecosystem includes a marketplace, an express delivery service, traditional and digital banks, a BNPL service, an automotive marketplace and an app for entrepreneurs.” In 2024, it also plans to launch “the largest logistics complex for e-commerce in the country, which is expected to increase e-commerce turnover on its platform by more than 150% during the year.”
Pandion has raised $41.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Revolution Growth with participation from existing investors Playground Global, Prologis Ventures, Bow Capital, Telstra Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, and Schematic Ventures and new investors Proof and Sentinel Global. The Seattle-based parcel network designed for e-commerce residential delivery says it will use the new funding “to accelerate the growth of its residential parcel delivery network, including building new technology offerings, expanding its geographic reach, and increasing delivery speed for customers like Saks Fifth Avenue.” Founded by Scott Ruffin, Pandion “uniquely manages the package journey for brands, picking up at their fulfillment centers, sorting packages through a connected network of sortation centers, and delivering through a vast network of 500,000+ final-mile drivers.”
Ingrid has raised €21 million in a new round led by Verdane, the European specialist growth investor, alongside Schibsted Ventures, following previous investments in the company. The Stockholm-headquartered startup says that its delivery experience platform “optimizes e-commerce delivery experiences for more than 250 global online retailers, processing over 40 million orders per year across over 180 countries.” In a statement, the Piotr Zaleski-co-founded and led company said, “With Ingrid, retailers can manage the delivery experience in a multi-dimensional environment including product-specific requirements, multi-channel and/or multi-market, and A/B test to optimize the consumer experience. Consumers receive personalized delivery options that fit their lives thanks to smart logic relying on AI that analyses location, timing, sustainability and more.”
TheyDo has raised $34 million in a Series B round led by Blossom Capital, supported by existing investors Arches Capital and InnovationQuarter and joined by Steven Van Belleghem, HighSage Ventures and 20SALES. The Amsterdam, Netherlands-based software provider, which enables companies to map customer journeys, says that “from product discovery to purchase and use, [it] helps retailers identify improvement opportunities along every step of the customer journey.” Co-founder and CEO Jochem van der Veer said, “Executive teams are feeling the pressure to deliver more value for customers with less, especially in this economic climate, and what we’re seeing is a growing recognition that journey is the most powerful business tool that they have at their disposal to do that.”
Lily AI has raised $20 million in a Series B-1 financing round led by Conductive Ventures with participation from new investors Counterpart Ventures, Cendana Capital, and Transform Capital, and existing investors Canaan, Sorenson Capital, and NEA, bringing its total funding to date is now $62 million. The Mountain View, CA-based retail technology platform, which specializes in AI solutions for retailers and brands, says that it will use this latest funding round to extend its leadership into international markets, expand its social and eCommerce platform integrations, and accelerate the engineering team’s ability to ship enterprise-grade AI solutions across the retail value chain.
“There is tremendous momentum in the market and we are seeing increased demand from retailers looking to leverage proven AI to enhance customer experiences and improve business efficiency,” said Purva Gupta, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Lily AI.
FERMAT has raised $17 million in a Series A round led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from existing investors Greylock, QED Investors, and Courtside Ventures, bringing its total funding raised to over $30 million. The San Francisco-based startup, which “allows every retailer to create a unique shopping experience for each customer journey,” will use the new funds to continue fueling growth for its customers, including social commerce brands like True Classic, Jack Archer, mindbodygreen, U Beauty, and Nood.
Rishabh Jain-founded FERMAT says that it “provides a seamless end-to-end shopping experience for consumers and greater advertising performance for commerce brands. When shoppers engage with a brand on social, email, or SMS, FERMAT uses AI and machine learning to provide a unique and personalized journey from ad to shop to sale. Throughout the process, FERMAT carries relevant information about the customer, such as products they like, discounts they’ve seen, and influencers they’ve engaged with.”
Frontnow has raised €3.8 million in an extended Seed round led by Peak, with participation from PROfounders Capital and Identity Ventures, which it will use to “further develop its products and expand its sales partner network.” The Berlin, Germany-based tech startup provides “scalable AI solutions for e-commerce,” such as its Frontnow Advisor virtual shopping assistant, which “provides optimal customer advice through relevant information, personalized recommendations, and engaging interaction, enabled by the use of generative artificial intelligence to make communication more effective and ensure long-term competitiveness.”
Finboot has raised an undisclosed sum in a new funding round led by a strategic investor together with Wealth Club. The Wales, UK-based supply chain tech provider touts itself as “a leading provider of supply chain technology committed to empowering its clients in their digital transformation journey.” Leveraging “innovative blockchain technology,” Nish Kotecha-led Finboot says that its “flagship service, MARCO, enables companies to seamlessly integrate blockchain into their value and supply chains, fostering traceability, transparency, and compliance.”
Tracksuit has raised $13.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Altos Ventures and Footwork with participation from Lenny Rachitsky, Allbirds co-founder Tim Brown and Frank Body co-founder Bree Johnson, as well as existing investors Blackbird, Icehouse Ventures, Ascential and Shasta Ventures. The New Zealand-based brand marketing data and market research company – which counts Athletic Brewing, Steve Madden, Opendoor, AWAY Luggage, Momofuku, Skillshare, Care/Of, Hexclad, Bread & Butter Wines, Ollie Pet, MyFitnessPal, Supergoop!, and LolaVie as clients – will use the new funds to support its expansion in the UK and the U.S. this year. The company’s founder and CEO Connor Archbold said, “Our goal with Tracksuit was to improve upon the traditional market research model by making it much easier to understand and way more affordable — reshaping the future of marketing and market research.”
Bandicoot Imaging Sciences has raised AU$1 million in a Pre-Seed round led by Hong Kong VC qonvolv Ventures and included Precision Textiles and Mou Fung Ltd., as well as previous investor, NewSouth Innovations from UNSW. The Sydney-based startup, which aims to “transform the way fabrics and materials are captured and represented digitally,” will use the new funds to “boost innovation and growth for the technology used to create digital twins for physical fabrics, resulting in significantly better 3-D texture files for the fashion and textile industries.” The company said in a statement that is looking to “bridge the gap between physical and digital materials, to accelerate the adoption of Digital Product Creation (DPC) with 3D for textile products. By providing a rich, interactive digital experience of colours, textures and reflections, Bandicoot’s solution makes it possible for users anywhere in the world to quickly digitize physical fabrics with accuracy.”
Pimberly has raised £4M in a new round from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance and Northern Venture Capital Trusts, bringing its total funding to date to over £14 million ($17.8 million). The Manchester, UK-based startup provides product information management (“PIM”) and digital asset management (“DAM”) software to businesses to boost e-commerce sales. Pimberly – which counts Footasylum, Monsoon, JD Sports, Cotton Traders, Dover Sadlery and Harvey Nichols as clients – will use the new funds to upgrade its PIM and DAM technology platform and expand in its already growing presence in the U.S. and European markets.
“The leading ecommerce businesses now sell on multiple marketplaces around the world, which means they have to list their products on numerous different sites and in different languages,” Pimberly founder and CEO Martin Balaam says. “Our product helps them to enrich their product information with more relevant data, images, videos and 3D visuals, and improve the customer’s shopping experience.”
Hakio has raised €4 million in a Seed round co-led by People Ventures and Dreamcraft Ventures and joined by existing investors Blazar Capital and Founderment. The Danish SaaS company, which helps fashion and apparel companies to make more accurate predictions about their future sales to optimize inventory levels, will use the new funds to further develop and expand its platform. Hakio says that it “leverages machine learning algorithms to enhance forecasting accuracy and tackle the global waste issue in the fashion industry. “By removing bias when creating a baseline forecast and subsequently including expert knowledge in a sleek and user-friendly platform, fashion brands can increase planning accuracy and reduce operational costs and working capital. This means companies can free up funds to use elsewhere,” said Hakio co-founder and CEO Malte Bjerg Vittrup.
PriyoShop has raised $5 million in a Pre-Series A round led by Century Oak Ventures with participation from Evolution Ventures, Iterative, SOSV (Orbit Startups), GFR Fund, BonBillo, Accelerating Asia, South Asia Tech Partners, and Voltity. The Dhaka, Bangladesh-based business to business retail marketplace for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) will use the new funds to “roll out transformative retail supply chain solutions designed to benefit businesses across various sectors” and enhance its technology infrastructure, while expanding its geographical reach and market penetration. PriyoShop’s founder and CEO Asikul Alam Khan said, “We have made a great difference in the lives of small business owners over the past two years. At present, we have roughly 55,000 merchants on our platform, and we expect to positively impact over one million merchants in the coming year.”
Swirl has raised $1.1 million in a Seed round led by Shastra VC and angel investors from India, the Middle East, and the United States.. The Indian live commerce software as a service (SaaS) company will use the new funds to grow its product teams with a particular focus on the U.S. and the Middle Eastern markets. Founded in 2021 by Kaizad Hansotia and Bheshaj Joshi, Swirl boasts an AI-powered video commerce platform that enables clients, including Puma, VIVO, TVS, GKHair, Traya, and Arvind Brands, to transform short videos or live streams into shoppable content. Hansotia said in a statement, “We have already built a strong validation with global brands across India, Middle East and Europe. With the funding, we plan to enter the $100 billion-plus US and UAE market while strengthening our product suite.”
Octup has raised $4 million in a Pre-Seed round led by Tal Ventures with participation from Bullet Ventures, HCS Investors Group and World Trade Ventures, and the founders of unicorn companies Trax and Rapyd. The Tel Aviv, Israel-based provider of an operational AI-driven ecommerce insights platform says it will use the funding to “broaden the rollout of its 360-degree end-to-end discovery platform for e-commerce.” The AI-driven e-commerce insights platform says it “uncovers overlooked data” from brand manufacturers’ operations, including packaging, logistics and warehousing to last-mile delivery, returns management and customer support. In turn, it reveals opportunities to cut operating costs and boost profits.”
E-commerce personalization platform provider Bloomreach has acquired Radiance Commerce, “a revolutionary, enterprise-grade conversational commerce platform powered by the latest in generative AI.” The parties said in a statement that “using large language models, Radiance guides customers on their shopping journey through expertise-based selling, product search, recommendations, and exploration.” aj De Datta, the co-founder and CEO of Bloomreach, said, “Bloomreach is fully invested in an AI-driven future for e-commerce, and Radiance Commerce is critical in helping us bring that future to life,” said Raj De Datta, co-founder and CEO, Bloomreach. “We have the most robust commerce dataset out there and commerce-specific AI connected to every channel in the shopping journey. Now, we take that unmatched foothold in e-commerce a step further, advancing our conversational capabilities and moving even faster to make Bloomreach Clarity available to businesses around the world.”
Sway, formerly Returnmates, has raised $19.5 million in a Series A led by 7GC with participation from Blackhorn Ventures, Lightshed Ventures, Rise of the Rest Revolution, and more. The Los Angeles, CA-based technology company, which enables brands and retailers to offer customers “a white glove delivery and returns experience,” will use the new funds to “grow [its] team, expand coverage from 20 to 25 cities, and enhance the technology to provide additional value for both brand partners and consumers.”
“Consumers don’t choose to shop at brands because UPS, FedEx or USPS drop off the package,” said Sway co-founder & CEO Eric Wimer. “Up until today, delivery and return services have been treated like a commodity. With Sway, we become an extension of the brand’s experience. When you maintain an open channel with the shopper, deliver their package seamlessly, and pick up their return if it doesn’t work out, you redefine the shopper’s relationship with the brand.”
Rokt, the leading ecommerce technology company using machine learning and AI to make transactions more relevant to each shopper, has agreed to acquire AfterSell, a Shopify and Shopify Plus partner that helps e-commerce merchants upsell and cross-sell. Through the acquisition, Rokt says it “will strengthen its SMB offering and expand its client portfolio to more than 20,000 SMB merchants, while giving them access to the same network and powerful AI technology built for large enterprises.” The transaction is expected to close by February 1, 2024. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The parties said in a statement that AfterSell enables Shopify merchants to increase sales with personalized cart, checkout and post-purchase upsells. Brands including Good American, KitchenAid, HexClad, Miami Heat and Bloom Nutrition use AfterSell to increase AOV and customer retention.
Accenture has agreed to acquire Work & Co, a global digital product company that “blends design, technology, and innovation to help companies create breakthrough products and experiences.” The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. In a statement, the parties stated that Work & Co – which counts Apple, Aesop, Aldo, Harley-Davidson, and Mercedes-Benz, among others – “has deep credibility in creating flagship digital experiences and products—from mobile apps and commerce platforms to retail experiences, digital kiosks, and generative AI applications.” Meanwhile, Accenture says that the acquisition “reinforces how continued investment by Accenture Song—the world’s largest tech-powered creative group—is creating new ways for its clients to grow while meeting their customers’ ever-evolving needs.”
eCargo Holdings Limited (ASX: ECG) (eCargo) has secured a new private debt facility with AlteriQ Global, an Asia-focused private credit investment firm with a strong edge in Southeast Asia, for $5 million. The Sydney-based supply chain company, which “helps brands expand and sell more in the Asia market,” will use the new cash to fund the continued growth of its proprietary B2B eCommerce platform, Flow. “In response to evolving market dynamics and supply chain disruptions, the Flow platform has experienced substantial growth in user adoption and transaction volume over the past year,” eCargo said in a statement. “This surge underscores the critical demand for a reliable supply chain partner like eCargo to serve as the intermediary, overseeing end-to-end order management from origin to destination.”
GreyOrange Inc. has raised $135 million in a Series D round led by Anthelion Capital (formerly Cowen Sustainable Investments) with participation from existing investors, such as Mithril, 3State Ventures, and Blume Ventures. The New York-based leader in AI-driven fulfillment automation says that this investment “reinforces [its] innovative approach to transforming warehouse and retail store operations through a hardware-agnostic software platform and a dynamic range of certified robotic and sensing technologies.” It will use the new funds to “accelerate [its] technology leadership, continue its global expansion, and further support the adoption of GreyOrange’s fulfillment orchestration platform in warehouses, distribution centers, and retail stores.”
“As we scale our technology and enhance customer experiences and operational efficiency, we recognize that keeping the needs of our customers at the center of our product and solution roadmap has proven essential for our customers’ success, as well as our own,” said Akash Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO, GreyOrange. “This Series D funding amplifies our commitment to leadership within the AI and robotics orchestration space and affirms our thought leadership within this market.”
MAKA has raised $2.65 million in a Pre-Seed round co-led by 4DX Ventures and Janngo, and backed by Palm Drive Capital. Founded by CEO Diana Owusu-Kyereko in 2021, the Nigerian fashion and beauty e-commerce platform, which aims to simplify buying fashion and beauty products in Africa, says the new funds will enable it to “satisfy the escalating needs of the continent’s e-commerce sector.” MAKA said in a statement that it stands out with its “interactive social commerce model, leveraging live try-on hauls and user-generated content to provide a personalized and scalable shopping experience.”
DUST Identity has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Amex Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Airbus Ventures, 8VC, and others. The Boston-based company, which provides technology that “enables product authentication by linking physical items to their digital records,” says it is now expanding its offerings to include the authentication of luxury goods, artwork, game-used apparel and memorabilia, and other one-of-a-kind items. Led by co-founder and CEO Ophir Gaathon, DUST Identity said in a statement that its “award-winning anchored digital thread solution delivers the ability to track and trace an object’s pedigree and provenance throughout its lifecycle – providing access to the right information at the right place and time.”
Syrup has raised $17.5 million in a Series A round led by Accel Partners with participation from existing investors Gradient Ventures and 1984 Ventures. The New York-based company, which provides AI-powered planning, buying, and inventory optimization for omni-channel commerce, will use the new funds to “support expansion,” including by “building on its foundation of world-class machine learning talent, growing its team across engineering, product, and sales.” James Theuerkauf co-founded and led Syrup said in a statement, “Increased accuracy in forecasting takes the guesswork out of merchandise planning, helping reduce overproduction,” asserting that the “Syrup solution connects inventory data with a unique mix of historical, transactional, and real-time data so that planning teams can make optimal decisions with confidence.”
Inflow has raised $2 million in a Seed round from investors, including AppWorks, 500 Global, January Capital, Spiral Ventures, and Saison Capital. The Vietnamese fashion supply chain platform, which aims to further revolutionize the country’s textile and garment industry, will use the new funds to “further develop its technology, driving significant changes in the Vietnamese fashion industry.”
Cloudsmith has raised $11 million (€10 million) in a Series A2 round led by MMC Ventures, and follows a 2021 initial Series A round led by Tiger Global. The Belfast-headquartered software supply chain management firm says it will use the new funds to “support [its] efforts to build a powerful software supply chain platform for clients that include Shopify, PagerDuty, Font Awesome, HP and EnterpriseDB, enhancing its cloud-native software supply chain solution.” Founded in 2016, by former NYSE developers Alan Carson and Lee Skillen, Cloudsmith says that it is “aiming to simplify, secure and accelerate software development and delivery pipelines.”
Etaily has raised $17.8 million in a Series A funding round led by Chinese and Taiwanese PE firm SKS Capital and co-led by Singapore’s Pavilion Capital, with participation from Japanese SBI ICCP Fund, Kaya Founders, the Magsaysay Family, Chan family, Foxmont Capital and JGDEV. Manilla, Philippines-based etaily says that it is “powered by a proprietary operating system for end-to-end commerce technology” and provides “unique end-to-end distribution solutions in e-commerce and omni-channel, for global consumer brands in the region, as well as its own brand portfolio.” Founder Alexander Friedhoff said in a statement, “Our unique digital approach sets us apart, making etaily the architect of digital brands and retail. Today, people in the region buying something online from the leading retail and digital brands such as Crocs, Levi’s, Skechers, Fila and many others – all of it is being powered by etaily’s infrastructure.”
Blue Yonder, a leading supply chain solutions provider, announced the closing of its acquisition of Doddle, a leading technology business focused on making the first and last mile more seamless, sustainable and profitable. With this acquisition, Blue Yonder can offer “a more comprehensive logistics suite designed to build more sustainable and profitable end-to-end supply chains.” Blue Yonder CEO Duncan Angove said in a statement, “Doddle’s differentiated solution to logistics and reverse logistics challenges is the perfect complement to Blue Yonder’s existing suite of services. With our expanded offerings, including Doddle’s self-service kiosks and pick-up, drop-off (PUDO) networks, we are able to offer retailers and logistics providers enhanced growth potential and superior experiences for their own customers.”
Virtuall has raised €829,000 in a Pre-Seed round led by EIFO (Export and Investment Fund of Denmark), Styleit (Styleit is the FashionTech accelerator of the Italian National Accelerator Network of CDP, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti), and Antler, Europe’s most active early stage VC firm. The Danish startup says that it is building technology designed to “allow fashion brands to seamlessly connect with the digital generation in popular games and social channels with ‘One-Click’ Brand Asset Distribution.” Its platform connects brands, 3d channels and data to “distribute virtual brand products from one central hub, [which] significantly increases the ability of fashion brands to engage with future generations of tech-savvy customers.” Jonas Wallengren, co-founder of Virtuall, said in a statement, “The Fashion industry is quickly adopting new channels for creating engagement with new tech-savvy customer generations and mirroring our digital lifestyle. We envision a future where customer experience is enhanced through Games, digital value, and immersive technology that are seamlessly accessible for all lines of business. We are in a position to simplify enterprises’ access to these channels by reducing the technological barriers to a rapidly expanding market.”
Trax has completed a $50 million venture debt investment from Deutsche Bank Private Credit & Infrastructure. The Boston-based provider of cloud-based retail inventory management, visual merchandising, and pricing analysis solutions will use the funds to “accelerate its investment in Signal-Based Merchandising, a dynamic new solution leveraging its computer vision, shopper audience and crowd merchandising scale to drive higher ROI for brands and retailers on their investment in retail execution.” Justin Behar, CEO of Trax, said in a statement, “This funding is recognition of the progress Trax is making to serve a broader set of CPG customers in new and valuable ways and supports our continued growth efforts and path to profitability in 2024.”
Qomodo has raised €34.5 million in a Pre-Seed funding round led by Fasanara Capital. The Milan-based company is introducing a suite of smart payment solutions to physical retailers, including a buy now-pay later formula for essential yet often unexpected expenses, increasing both customer peace of mind and business turnover. Gianluca Cocco, CEO and co-founder of Qomodo, said, “We’ve developed an “all-in-one” product that offers merchants all the payment solutions they need today: from SmartPOS for card acceptance to buy now-pay later, Pay-by-Link, and Tap-to-Phone. This way, we’re introducing innovation to many sectors that often suffer from technological delays and endure slow and bureaucratic processes.”
Zelig has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Hilco Global with participation from global luxury investor Bezikian Zareh, bringing the company’s valuation to a $100 million. Launched by MadaLuxe Group co-founders Sandy Sholl and Adam Freede, Los Angeles-based Zelig says that its “patented technology is the first to offer a hyper-personalized online shopping experience that recreates the in-store fitting room experience,” stating that its “B2B2C technology platform combines AI, machine learning and computer vision to show shoppers high-quality images of how clothes, footwear and accessories would look on their body type.” The company will use the new funds to “deepen its personalization capabilities and build out additional features.” Sholl said in a statement, “The technology provides a high-quality, virtual try-on experience that allows online consumers to create different looks and see themselves in those outfits as they shop across an e-commerce site. This first-of-its-kind solution gives consumers more confidence in their selections and the ability to make more qualified purchase decisions, which will significantly increase AOV and reduce returns. Zelig also provides brands with valuable data insights they can use to automate personalized marketing that drives customer retention and loyalty.”
Tabby has raised $200 million in a Series D round led by Wellington Management with participation from Bluepool Capital in addition to existing investors STV, Mubadala Investment Capital, Arbor Ventures and PayPal Ventures. The Dubai-based buy now-pay later company, which rivals the likes of Klarna, will use the new funds “to continue shaping [its] best-in-class finance and shopping products for consumers and retailers.” CEO and Co-Founder Hosam Arab said: “Tabby set out with a purpose to reshape financial services–one that’s fair and responsible–and with this investment we can advance our mission across Saudi Arabia and the UAE.”
JOOR has raised $25 million in a new round led by Brightwood Capital and Tamarix Capital Partners, with participation from existing investors Macquarie Capital, Battery Ventures, and Canaan Partners. The New York-based company, which touts itself as “the fashion industry’s premier wholesale management platform,” will sue the new funds to “enhance its platform experience and better serve its global network of fashion brands and retailers.” Additionally, the Kristin Savilia-led company plans to invest in new data-led initiatives and expand its presence in categories such as footwear, sports and outdoors, while also aiming to improve its JOOR Pay solution, which facilitates secure and efficient payment processing within the platform. The company said in a statement that its platform “enables brands and buyers to connect, present collections, build assortments, place and manage orders and process payments. By digitizing the entire wholesale buying and selling process, JOOR helps brands and retailers operate more efficiently and leverage data to optimize their business and make informed decisions, according to the release.”
Creative Force has raised $8.9 million in a Series A round of funding from Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) and Hearst Ventures, bringing the company’s total funding to $17.9 million. The Holstebro, Denmark-based provider of an end-to-end creative operations workflow platform will use the new funds to scale its Danish headquarters and new U.S. office in Boston, as well as to integrate generative artificial intelligence into its platform. Thomas Kragelund-co-founded and led Creative Force enables retailers, brands, and commercial studios to deliver e-commerce and editorial images, video, and copy at scale via its cloud-based workflow platform. The company counts PVH, J.Lindeberg, Columbia Sportswear, ALDO, Tommy Bahama, boohoo, and David Yurman, among others, as clients.
“We’ve been actively growing our European sales and customer success teams to support our growth and provide the best service possible to our European clients,” Kragelund said in a statement. “I believe having team members in the regions we support is important. That way, our team understands the local needs and challenges (and sometimes even speaks the local language). This allows us to add genuine value for our customers.
Ergo has raised $1.5 million in a Pre-seed funding round led by Anthemis and Wischoff Ventures. The New York-based provider of a repricing platform for online retailers will use the new funds to make additional hires and expand the product pipeline, which will include an app for stores on other marketplaces. According to TechCrunch, “Ergo’s vision is to build out analytics for stores so they can gain value while also boosting revenue and sales and learning about the market. The company is also working to get products and features out for the impending holiday shopping season.” Founder and CEO Claire Stepanek told the site, “Price negotiations have this negative reputation for being stressful, and what I found was that the most successful strategy was being authentic and keeping it simple. That’s where I thought of ergo: How cool would it be if everyone could use what I learned about negotiations in their day-to-day lives for shopping?”
MarketLeap (formerly Gonuggets) has raised €2.6 million in a Seed round from Notion Capital, along with existing investors, including Luxembourg’s Expon Capital. The Luxembourg-headquartered e-commerce platform, which touts itself as “the first complete AI-enabled operating system for digitally native brands,” will sue the new funds to accelerate its operating system’s technical development, including the addition of new service offerings, and to facilitate expansion into the U.S. and the scaling of its UK operations. “Currently, most brands reach only 0.2% of their total marketplace potential due to a lack of expertise, time, and money. They end up spending over 70% of their time managing their marketplace operations, accounting for less than 20% of their total revenue,” explains Mamoun Benkirane, CEO and Co-founder of MarketLeap. “MarketLeap helps brands break through their revenue ceilings on e-commerce marketplaces. We make marketplaces the easiest sales channel for brands, with no time, effort, or capital required, allowing them to focus on what they are the most passionate about, building and sourcing their products.”
SuperOrdinary has raised $58 million in a Series B round from Manzanita, Puig, Demira Gate, Upper90, and Julian Reis. The Los Angeles-based company says that it is “the fast-growing global brand accelerator and expert in establishing and scaling brands in international and domestic channels.” Led by Founder and CEO Julian Reis, SuperOrdinary will use the new funds to “deepen [its] capabilities and ensure continued sustainable growth and expansion.” The company said in a statement that it “plans to invest further in global live streaming capabilities, Amazon account management and brand protection services, and its creator monetization platform. These investments will continue to bolster the company’s ability to connect brands, consumers and creators around the world.” Its clients include Farmacy, OLAPLEX, Sabon, NuFace, and Biossance, among others.
Shopblocks has raised more than £1.5 million in a new round from npif – Mercia Equity Finance, and existing investor, Greater Manchester Combined Authority. The Manchester, UK-based startup will use the new funds to “immediately create ten new jobs, further enhance its platform and attract more large B2B-focused clients.” Aimed at medium and large companies with complex pricing models or supply chains such as wholesalers, IT resellers or businesses offering bespoke products, Kevin Jones-led Shopblocks’ “no code” platform enables companies to create a complete e-commerce ecosystem, with multiple linked accounts and different stores for different brands or locations, and create ‘white label’ sites for their resellers and dealers. “Around 40 percent of brands with a B2B-focus have still not adopted ecommerce, largely because of the challenge of transferring their business model online,” Jones said. “Many companies who come to us do so on the back of a two-year failed attempt to launch a store fit for their business. Shopblocks offers a solution.”
Faire has received an undisclosed investment from Shopify in furtherance of a partnership that “brings together two world-class category leaders in retail and commerce to expand Shopify’s B2B offerings and help drive growth for the brands and independent retailers the two companies serve.” The parties said in a statement that San Francisco-based Faire – which is the largest online wholesale marketplace used by independent retailers to discover, source, and sell unique products from around the corner and around the world – will become “the recommended wholesale marketplace for Shopify, which powers millions of merchants around the world.” Meanwhile, the deal will deepened Shopify’s “one-stop commerce offerings to make B2B selling even easier and extend the Faire marketplace and value props to Shopify merchants, diversifying and strengthening the entrepreneurs and small business communities they serve.”
Bricz has raised an undisclosed sum from UST in an effort to enable both companies to “help customers navigate supply chain transformation, providing guidance in areas including process improvement, technology enablement, predictive fulfillment, and optimization.” Bricz, an Atlanta-headquartered global supply chain company, and Bengaluru-based digital solutions provider UST said in a statement that the new partnership allows it “to offer greater support for configuration and implementation of supply chain applications in critical areas such as warehouse management, transportation management and omnichannel commerce. It will further develop supply chain capabilities to meet needs of its growing customer base while assisting Bricz’s efforts to grow at scale.”
Aptean, a global provider of mission-critical enterprise software solutions, has acquired Apparel Business Systems (“ABS”), a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) software to fashion and apparel manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors. Alpharetta, Georgia-based Aptean – which touts itself as “one of the world’s leading providers of purpose-built, industry-specific software that helps manufacturers and distributors effectively run and grow their businesses” – stated that ABS offers “a comprehensive, web-based ERP solution designed for multi-channel operations including wholesale, distribution, manufacturing, and B2B/B2C E-Commerce.” In a statement, Roberto Mangual, SVP and GM of the Americas Discrete Business Unit at Aptean, said, “ABS has deep roots in the fashion and apparel industry with over 30 years of experience addressing the unique requirements of organizations operating in the industry. Today, its next generation software, backed by the deep expertise of its team, helps its customers to remain competitive and profitable in a rapidly changing marketplace.”
Akeneo has acquired AI-driven platform Unifai to enhance its product cloud offering and elevate global product experiences. Boston, Massachusetts-based Akeneo – which enables companies to build and deliver product experiences across customers touchpoint through a comprehensive product experience strategy – boasts customers that include Chico’s, The Very Group, TaylorMade Golf, Rail Europe, and Gucci-owner Kering that use Akeneo to scale and customize their omnichannel commerce operations. Paris-based Unifai touts itself at the “first AI platform that automatically standardizes, enriches and categorizes the product catalogs of e-tailers and distributors.” Akeneo founder and CEO Fred de Gombert said in a statement, “We’ve all seen the flashy demonstrations from some CX or commerce companies related to generative AI for product content and we became immediately worried for the teams that are responsible for that part of the business. Magically generating product descriptions in an e-commerce site or marketplace without centralized, complete and accurate product attributes will only lead to failed product experiences, poor customer touch points, and ultimately a damaged brand image.”
The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Mimbi has raised €1.5 million in a Seed round led by Founders Future and OVNI Capital, with participation from Kima Ventures, and Better Angels. Founded by Mickael Froger and Frédéric Clément, Paris-based Mimbi provides a SaaS platform that leverages advanced data analytics to enable brands to measure return on investment for their advertising campaigns on e-commerce sites. Mimbi said a statement, “With an estimated annual growth of 20%, the Retail Media market is expected to reach $125.7 billion in 2023 and eventually surpass TV advertising investments. Mimbi provides an innovative solution for brands and agencies to track and optimize the true incrementality of their advertising campaigns on e-commerce sites.”
Databutton has raised $5.1 million in a Seed round was led by Skyfall Ventures and Maki.vc. The Oslo, Norway-based provider of an online app builder for innovators and entrepreneurs will use the new funds to “further refine its offer in close collaboration with its expanding user community.” Founded by Trygve Karper, Martin Røed, and Viral Shah, Databutton provides a platform with AI-assisted tools to build AI apps that can help businesses work smarter and make better decisions. Users can chat with Databutler, discuss and build code together, problems, ask advice and get inspiration. They can connect to online models and frameworks – includes Open AI’s GPT-4, Streamlit (the open-source app framework used to build and share apps), Langchain’s language model app framework, and more. Databutton CEO and co-founder Trygve Karper said, “We’re excited to have secured this funding, which will allow us to bring Databutton to market and revolutionise the way businesses create and share AI apps. Our AI-assisted product will empower anyone with domain knowledge and ideas to unleash their inner superheroes, enabling them to build amazing productivity tools in record time.”
The Owl Solutions has raised $1.25 million in a Seed round with $250,000 coming from The Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) through their Ready 4 Market co-investment fund, and an additional $1 million in “co-investment” coming from private sector investors. The Toronto, Canada-based supply chain analytics company, which is “dedicated to reducing financial, environmental, and productivity waste for mid-sized manufacturers,” will use the new funds to “fuel its expansion and facilitate the advancement of their sales, marketing, and product initiatives.” The Hugo Fuentes-led company said in a statement that its Wiseview high-performance supplier network “empowers manufacturers and their suppliers to achieve seamless alignment, mitigate the risk of business disruptions, cultivate a performance-driven culture, and strengthen customer-supplier relationships through open communication.”
AMP has raised $18.5 million in a Series A round which included participation from Jungle Ventures and Openspace Venturese. The Sydney, Australia-based eCommerce platform will use the new funds to “further expand its interconnected, end-to-end platform for eCommerce merchants.” AMP co-founder and CEO Patrick Barnes said in a statement, “This investment will enable us to expand our team and accelerate our product development through a mix of building and buying best-in-class software to empower eCommerce entrepreneurs to start, grow and scale their business.” Fellow co-founder Cameron Priest said, “AMP was born from the desire to keep things simple. We’ve created a platform of interconnected, high-performance solutions, built to power and scale eCommerce businesses while solving multiple problems from optimising sales, managing shipping and tracking analytics. Over the next year, the AMP platform will see significant additions to its suite of solutions, along with improvements to existing solutions, more integrations and exciting partnerships.”
To date, AMP has made three acquisitions to further round out its end-to-end eCommerce platform including checkout and conversion startup AppHQ, shipping solution, Addition, and analytics tool, Lifetimely.
Shop Circle has raised $120 million in a Series A round led by 645 Ventures and 3VC, with participation from previous backers QED Investors and NfX, with the credit facility provided by i80 Group. The funding was raised through a strategic combination of equity and debt. The London-based provider of “one-stop-shop software provider for e-commerce brands,” will use the new funds to continue building and expanding its suite of e-commerce tools.” Luca Cartechini, CEO and Co-Founder of Shop Circle, said in a statement, “Our vision has always been to create a comprehensive operating system for e-commerce brands, providing them with the necessary technology to excel in today’s competitive market.”
Penny Black has raised £1.5 million in a Seed round from imaging technology company AGFA and VC firm ninepointfive. The United Kingdom-based customizable packaging startup provides companies with “unique marketing SaaS tool that seamlessly connects online stores, marketing tools, warehouse management systems, and fulfillment centers,” thereby enabling brands to “harness customer data and create hyper-personalised experiences and printed materials that delight customers from the moment they open their purchases.” The company’s CEO Douglas Franklin said in a statement, “The moment consumers receive their online orders is the only touchpoint left for ecommerce brands to have a physical connection with them. Brands need to surprise and delight customers to secure their loyalty, especially when acquiring new ones can be so expensive.”
Harmonya has raised $20 million in a Series A round led led by Bright Pixel Capital with participation from existing investor Team8, as well as Arc Investors, J Ventures, Silicon Road Ventures, Allen & Company, LiveRamp Ventures, and Susa Ventures. The New York-based company – which was founded in 2021 by CEO Cem Kent, CPO Ram Etzion, and CTO Dima Machlin – provides an AI-powered, API-based data enrichment and augmentation product that assists in category management, innovation, and product search. It will use the new funds to further develop its proprietary generative AI technology, enhance its suite of tools, and scale its go-to-market operations.
“When a new consumer trend emerges, like sustainability or wellness, CPGs and retailers need to go over all of their existing products after the fact and manually add attributes to each,” Cem Kent, CEO and Co-founder of Harmonya, said in a statement. “This limits their ability to quickly identify and respond to emerging consumer preferences, power accurate demand forecasting, and create tailored shopping experiences.” With its platform, which can ingest information from millions of online product listings, creating unique tags from titles, descriptions, ingredients and consumer reviews, Harmonya is looking to ensure that brands CPGs are not being held back by their existing product data infrastructure, which it says is based on outdated, static models that do not enable granular understanding of individual products and what makes them sell.
Rewaa has raised $27 million in a Series A round led by led by Aramco-owned fund Wa’ed Ventures with participation from STC’s Corporate Innovation Fund, Graphene Ventures, Sadu Capital, Vision Ventures, Khwarizmi Ventures, RZM Investment, Derayah VC, and Abdulrahman Sulaiman Al Rajhi & Sons Investment Company. The Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based omnichannel inventory management system provider’s co-Founder and CEO Mohammed Alqasir said in a statement that the new funds “propel us toward our vision of becoming the optimal tech partner for SMBs in the retail sector. By contributing to the industry’s digital transformation, we aim to make an impact on retail merchants, enabling them to increase efficiency.” Founded in 2018 by Mohammed Alqasir and Abdullah Aljadhai, Rewaa provides a cloud-based solution that connects online and physical store inventory and enables companies to manage inventory, sales, and payments. It also features point-of-sale and accounting modules for an integrated platform.
Starcart has raised €3.5 million in a Seed round led by Nordic early-stage investor Inventure with participation from Finnish angel investors and Business Finland. The Helsinki-based e-commerce startup – which says that it is “leading the next wave of online shopping” – will use the new funds to scale up its AI-powered shopping platform and launch to customers across Europe. As the “only end-to-end shopping platform in the market,” Pasi Ilola-founded and led Starcart enables consumers to buy items from multiple stores with just one click, using one single interface. Ilola said in a statement, “Over the past two decades, online shopping has surged in popularity, but it has also become much more time-consuming for consumers. The vast amount of products and stores available online means that people must navigate through a huge amount of options when buying anything. Starcart was created to solve this problem, and to make online shopping easy and enjoyable.”
Conversation24 has raised €3 million in a new round led by Holland Capital. The Rotterdam-based omni-channel communication platform – which acts as a “one-stop-shop conversational commerce platform for payments, Click2WhatsApp(Ads), GPT-4, funnel optimization, and lead automation” – will use the new funds to “bring the capabilities of [its] platform towards all consumer-facing enterprises.” As Conversation24 “propels its growth trajectory, businesses worldwide can anticipate a new era of customer interactions characterized by unmatched personalization and enhanced user experiences,” CEO and founder Nick Blom said.
PROSPECT 100 has raised $750,000 in a Pre-Seed round co-led by London-based QVentures, Danish fund Blackwood, and Austrian entrepreneur Ferdinand Ahorner, with participation of angel investors including American sneaker designer, collector, store owner, and YouTube series creator Sean Wotherspoon, Snappt and Gut Records’ Guy Holmes, and Adam Perrin of Masomo Games and Marshmallow. The London-based co-creation platform, which links brands and creatives worldwide, boasts clients that include Paramount, Gucci-owner Kering, Swatch, amfAR, and the Ukrainian government. Co-founder Alexandre Daillance said in a statement, “This pre-seed round will help us to continue solidifying our position as the home of co-creation for brands and designers around the world. From increasing our number of briefs to expanding the range of types of organizations we work with, we are looking forward to carefully growing our offering to designers and improving our product continuously.”
Pi-xcels has raised $1.7 million in a Seed round led by Wavemaker Partners, with participation from other prominent venture capital firms such as Hustle Fund, Amand Ventures, and Black Kite Capital, as well as strategic angel investors. The Singapore-based company – which offers a Near Field Communication POS device that enables retailers to issue interactive e-receipts in stores, deliver enhanced customer experiences, and collect data-driven insights – said in a statement that the round “marks a momentous step towards realizing [its] vision of revolutionizing the retail landscape and empowering merchants with its interactive Near Field Communication (NFC) receipt technology.”
Pi-xcels CEO Daniel Lim said, “Pi-xcels is shaping the future of retail with paperless receipts and data-centric shopper journeys. We are among the few use cases of NFC beyond payments. Not only does our app-less technology enhance customer experiences, it also equips retailers with valuable data to better understand and cater to customers’ preferences.”
Dipp has raised $1.5 million in a Seed funding round from investors that include venture accelerator SparkLabs Taiwan, U.S. venture capital firm Palm Drive Capital, and content-tech unicorn Tezign. The Taiwan-headquartered startup will use the new funds to grow its team, especially in its R&D and business departments. Founded by Jennifer Chen and Mikhail Abramov to automate companies’ workflow and allow marketing and design teams to collaborate more effectively, dipp plans to introduce generative AI-powered features to further address gaps between marketing and design departments. The brands dipp works with are “typically Fortune 500 companies in apparel and beauty that sell a large number of products, or upward of 500 SKUs,” including Levi’s, Estée Lauder, and Rakuten. Dipp caters to e-commerce companies that use it to manage and edit large batches of visual content required for online sales, while also working with e-commerce enablers, or agencies that help brands distribute products across multiple channels.
1WorldSync has acquired PowerReviews, a leading SaaS provider of user-generated ratings, reviews and other content. Chicago-based 1WordSync said in a statement that it “helps over 1,000 global brands and retailers collect and syndicate user-generated content and feedback—including ratings and reviews, Q&As, videos and social-media content—giving shoppers the confidence to make purchases. Additionally, the solution delivers actionable insights to brands and retailers to drive more traffic, increase sales and improve products and services.” The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Adding PowerReviews to our suite of technology and solutions makes 1WorldSync the only provider that can help brands and retailers orchestrate all areas of the content you see on an online product detail page,” said Steve Sivitter, CEO of 1WorldSync. “User-generated content, whether ratings and reviews, Q&A, images or videos are critical to the e-commerce shopping and buying experience.”
MikMak, a New York-based software company that “helps the world’s leading brands grow commerce-first,” has acquired ChannelAdvisor’s Shoppable Media and Brand Analytics product lines from CommerceHub. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The parties said in a statement that the deal “strengthens the breadth and depth of MikMak’s commerce insights,” giving existing MikMak brands access to “a larger retail network through the platform, as well as customer support and professional services team.” Additionally, brand partners “gain access to accelerated growth, expertise and partner integrations in the consumer electronics, home improvement and automotive accessories categories on top of MikMak’s presence in CPG, grocery, alcohol, beauty, personal care, pet care, home care and toy markets.”
The deal also marks “the start of a strategic partnership between MikMak and CommerceHub, which operates the world’s largest commerce network, bolstered by its acquisition of ChannelAdvisor in late 2022.” The transaction “allows CommerceHub to focus on its world-leading solutions for marketplaces, drop shipping, retail media and digital marketing while partnering with another industry leader to continue to serve mutual customers.”
Sewts raised €7 million in a Series A funding round from Emerald Technology Ventures, CNB Capital, EquityPitcher Ventures, and Nabtesco Technology Ventures, along with participation from existing investors Bayern Kapital, APEX Ventures, and HTGF. The Munich-based startup – which aims to streamline complex manual labor, namely in the textiles segment, into automated processes through the use of robotics – will use the new funds to accelerate the roll-out of its robot-powered VELUM system across international laundries and enter new markets, such as the processing of clothing returns in e-commerce. Sewts CEO and co-founder Alexander Bley said in a statement, “Our long-term vision is a ‘moonshot’ idea – to revolutionize the production of textiles. To get there, we first dedicate ourselves to the most promising niche markets and then approach the big vision step by step.”
Outfindo has raised €900,000 in a Seed round led by Presto Ventures with participation from Patero and Longevity Fellows. The Prague-based e-commerce company will use the new funds to expand its R&D, “focusing on product-tuning and expanding into new verticals, and go-to-market activities.” In a statement, the company – which provides a “Guided Selling” SaaS that optimizes flow on e-commerce platforms, using AI to create shopping guides for users help users find the exact product to suit their needs – said that its offering “has shown exceptional results, with a reported 40% interaction rate with the guide and conversion rates increasing up to three times. Additionally, returns have been significantly reduced, with reductions as high as 70% in certain cases.”
“Over the years, I’ve often found myself helping friends and colleagues choose the perfect bike. On the other hand, I’ve been struggling with choosing any other more complex product myself. I realized that e-commerce has been so busy with growth and operations that customer experience has been left behind,” Outfindo co-founder and CEO Jan Mateju said.
Odore has raised $5 million in a Seed round led by Fuel Ventures, along with participation from existing investors. The London-based engagement platform, which enables direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands to streamline their digital marketing efforts, will use the new funds to “expand [its] team and business globally and launch new tools to better serve [its] customers.” The Armaan Mehta and Karan Gupta-founded company’s customers include the entire L’Oreal Group (including licensed properties like Armani, Lancome, and YSL), as well as Dior, LVMH, and Shiseido. “The challenges that today’s industry faces are complex, and we founded Odore to provide solutions that are not only comprehensive but also transform the way brands strategize, operate, and connect. This is just the beginning,” Mehta said in a statement.
Croissant has launched with $24 million in Seed funding from a suite of investors, including Portage and KKR co-founders George Roberts and Henry Kravis, as well as Third Prime, BoxGroup, 25madison, and Twelve Below. The New York and Nashville-based company – whose founding team is led by Co-Founder and CEO John Howard (formerly of KKR), Co-Founder and CTO John Klose (Amazon, PayPal), and Head of Product Vrishti Mongia (Meta, Moda Operandi) – provides a fintech platform that “integrates into merchants’ existing shopping experiences and offers customers a guaranteed buyback value at checkout, boosting conversion and average order value.” Moreover, Croissant’s data science and AI tooling “generates the guaranteed buyback values offered to customers, and Croissant fulfills those guarantees. Post-purchase, items become liquid assets within customers’ Croissant accounts that they can later sell with one click. Once customers have sold their items, they are directed back to merchants with new funds to power future purchases, making for higher retention rates and lifetime value.”
“Only a small percentage of resellable fashion is transacted globally each year, but it’s still a $130 billion market that is rapidly growing,” Stephanie Choo, Partner at Portage, said in a statement. “To date, retailers are seeing little to no benefit from this ongoing boom. Croissant enables them to harness the interest in and growth of resale to drive new full-price sales with minimal integration and no need to transact within the secondhand ecosystem themselves.”
The company’s advisory board includes Rent the Runway Co-Founder and Board Member Jennifer Fleiss; former Chief Merchandising Officer of Intermix Divya Mathur; Lara Meiland-Shaw, a luxury fashion veteran with over 20 years of experience at brands like Louis Vuitton, Moncler, and Saks Fifth Avenue; and Homer and Outdoor Voices Founding Partner Andrew Parietti.
Fitted Inc. has raised $8.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Capital Eleven and included participation from Epic Ventures and Handshake Ventures. A fintech software platform that reimagines brand and retailer connectivity, Eagle, ID-based Fitted says that thanks to its platform, “all retail parties benefit from an elevated wholesale experience and have access to real-time data and critical financial information.” It will use the new funds “to fuel continued growth and meet customer demand,” and in particular, “accelerate product development and continue to provide exceptional value to our brand and retailer partners.” Fitted CEO and Co-Founder Monte Keleher said in a statement, “We are thrilled to have the support of our investors as we move forward with our mission to streamline connectivity between brands and retailers. Our goal is to create an end-to-end solution that allows brands and retailers to do business together seamlessly.”
AppHub has raised a $95 million strategic growth investment from PSG, a leading growth equity firm partnering with software and technology-enabled service companies to help accelerate their growth. An e-commerce enablement platform that enables merchants across e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, with “a growing family of software solutions,” New York-based AppHub will use the new funds to support its growth strategy to expand product offerings, enter new geographies and drive merchant success, both organically and through M&A.
In conjunction with the investment, AppHub acquired Boost, an AI-powered search and discovery tool, to enhance its portfolio of software solutions that enable e-commerce merchants to launch, grow, and scale their businesses. AppHub said in a statement, “Through AI-driven search, filtering, and product recommendations, Boost helps customers find what they’re looking for, increasing conversion and AOV (average order value). Boost has generated more than $16 billion in sales for more than 14,000 stores to date.”
Nuqleous has raised a $26 million strategic growth investment from Blue Ladder Capital, an investment and operating firm specializing in partnering with verticalized market-leading B2B software companies. The leading provider of automated retail space-planning and performance analytics software, Bentonville, AR-based Nuqleous “empowers top CPG brands, distributors, and retailers to enhance merchandising and data analytics.” Co-founder and CEO Paul Sims said in a statement, “We raised capital to accelerate product innovation and double-down on our customer-led growth strategy. We are dedicated to enhancing our customers’ lives through automation and empowering data-driven decision making.”
RADAR has raised $30 million in a Series A round led by returning investor Align Ventures, with participation from RX Ventures and several other “renowned retail investors,” bringing its total funding to date to $63 million. The New York-based company – which boasts an AI-powered inventory-tracking platform that combines RFID and computer vision technology to track and precisely locate in-store inventory with 99% accuracy – plans to use the new funds to “expand its customer roster, accelerate its product development efforts, and hire top engineering, product and sales talent. “Every retail brand is looking to operate more efficiently in this uncertain macroeconomic environment and having complete visibility into store inventory, including knowing exactly where every product is located, is key to that,” said Spencer Hewett, Founder and CEO of RADAR, said in a statement.
Flagship has raised $5 million in a Seed round led by Insight Partners with participation from Dream Ventures, Essential Capital, Klemhurst, Future Archives, AUFI Ventures, and the Kleiner Perkins Scout Fund, along with several strategic angel investors. New York-based Flagship, which boasts “a revolutionary retail inventory planning platform,” will use the funds to further accelerate their first product – an inventory cloud solution – and grow its customer base. In a statement, the Justin Abrams co-founded and led company said, “Utilizing advanced machine learning and AI models, Flagship provides predictive intelligence that retailers can use to optimize their inventory decisions. Flagship’s solution blends customer-level product feature-level data, allowing for more accurate demand prediction and smarter inventory management.” Early Flagship customers include Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL), State & Liberty, Cariuma, Ministry of Supply, and Public Rec, among others.
Cart.com has raised $60 million in a Series C round with participation from B. Riley Venture Capital, Kingfisher Investment Advisors, Snowflake Ventures, Prosperity7 Ventures, Legacy Knight, and other strategic corporate and financial investors. The Austin-based commerce and logistics solutions company, which is now valued at $1.2 billion, will use the new investment to meet increased demand from enterprise and B2B clients, accelerate its international expansion, and expand product development across its software portfolio. Cart.com co-founder and CEO Omair Tariq said in a statement, “As a leading commerce software and services provider, we are focused on enabling our customers to compete and win across every channel through digital tools and digitally driven logistics capabilities. We will continue to invest in our industry-leading commerce data capabilities, which are built to address the specific inventory, channel and supply chain challenges facing enterprises.”
Upp. has raised $10 million in a Seed funding round led by California-based Bonfire Ventures. The London-based company – which leverages AI and ML tech to “help e-commerce retailers optimize ad spend, up product discover, and increase overall sales” – will use the new funds to promote further growth, including by growing its team, engaging in geographic expansion, and introducing automation features. The Ben White and Drew Smith-founded platform is currently available in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the U.S., and is used by retailers, such as Charles Tyrwhitt, Onbuy, Roman Originals, and Nkuku. In a statement, White said, “The scale and complexity of today’s online retail environment have extended beyond the capability of humans alone and need the support of powerful AI and machine learning technology. The Upp.AI platform enables retailers to excel in a competitive landscape, achieve better results around the clock and align their finance and marketing teams’ goals seamlessly.”
Leap has raised $15 million in a new round co-led by existing investors BAM Elevate and Costanoa Ventures with participation from Equal Ventures, Hyde Park Ventures, and additional investors. The retail platform – which “launches and operates insight-driven retail stores” for companies like Frankies Bikinis, M.M.LaFleur, and Public Rec – will use the new funds to “enable the company to drive growth with existing and new brands, enhance platform capabilities and accelerate the company’s path to profitability.” Leap co-founder and CEO Amish Tolia said in a statement,”Now more than ever, brands want immersive retail stores to connect with high value customers directly. As Leap grows, our first-party data and operational efficiencies compound, resulting in advantages for both brands and landlords that the traditional in-house retail model simply can’t offer.”
Onebeat has raised $10 million in a Series B Round led by Magenta Venture Partners with participation from existing and new investors AnD Ventures, INcapital Ventures, J-Ventures, Surround Ventures and Wilson’s Bird Capital. The Tel Aviv-based AI-enabled retail-tech company says that it will use the new funds to “continue to expand its highly-adaptive retail platform, business operations and new business growth plans.” The Yishai Ashlag-founded and led company said in a statement that it is “rapidly transforming today’s legacy SCM solutions and the costly consulting services often associated with it through its more modern, AI-enabled solution that offers greater flexibility and inventory visibility as well as a more affordable SaaS model, which is especially relevant for today’s mid-market retailers looking to cut costs and expand margins.” The company boasts retailers across 26 countries and various retail sectors, including fashion, footwear, jewelry, pharmacy and beverage, among others, as clients. In addition, the company works with “some of the world’s foremost, well-respected global retail leaders, such as Calvin Klein, American Eagle, Crocs and the retail division of TATA Group, just to name a few.”
Sourcemap has raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Energize Ventures with participation from the E14 Fund. The leading global provider of supply chain mapping and monitoring software will leverage this latest funding to “further expand its global footprint and add business-critical solutions to its supply chain mapping and monitoring software suite.” The Leonardo Bonanni-founded and led company said in a statement, “New regulations in North America and Europe require companies to map and monitor their end-to-end supply chains to ensure uninterrupted production, avoid shortages of critical components, and root out social and environmental problems. Since June 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection alone has seized more than 4,000 imported U.S.-bound shipments on suspicion of forced labor, leading to major disruptions across the electronics, automotive, apparel and food industries. Hundreds of farmed, mined and manufactured goods are subject to these supply chain mapping requirements including the packaging, chemicals, polymers and metals that are part of every company’s supply chain.”
Impact Analytics has raised new funding from Vistara Growth, which follows from the Linthicum Heights, MD-based company raising funding in February 2021 and October 2022 from Argentum. A leading provider of SaaS AI-based solutions for supply chain and merchandise planning in retail, CPG and manufacturing, Impact Analytics will use the new funds to “accelerate its global expansion plans and most notably help further develop the Impact Analytics SmartSuite™ product portfolio, which optimizes forecasting, merchandising, and end-to-end lifecycle pricing. Clients such as BJ’s Wholesale Club, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Puma, Tapestry, and many others choose Impact Analytics to power their planning and pricing workflows.” The Prashant Agrawal-founded and led company said in a statement, “Using more than 150 variables to mix recency and history, Impact Analytics products process more than 30,000 modeling constructs to generate highly accurate forecasts that drive smarter decision making, improved operational efficiencies, and maximized profits.”
Everseen has raised a €65 million Series A follow-on funding round led by Crosspoint Capital Partners, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $90 million. A leading provider of AI-powered computer vision and hyper automation solutions, Cork, Ireland-headquartered Everseen will use the new funds to continue its investment in “computer vision AI technology and help the company scale.” Alan O’Herlihy, Everseen Founder and CEO, says, “Everseen’s computer vision AI platform has scaled the automation of scene-based processes with impact – in use across 6,000 major retail stores and connecting 80,000 point-of-sale devices. We have created generic process-aware technology that can be applied to a broad spectrum of business functions, leveraging our growing dataset.”
“We’re experiencing significant demand for our technology from retailers grappling with the dual impact of declining customer spending and rising operational losses, including shrinkage,” O’Herlihy said. “The retail industry is also facing challenges such as labor shortages and labor cost inflation, making our technology even more valuable in addressing these issues.”
Vertically integrated retail-focused tech platform Ace Turtle has raised $34 million as part of its Series B round led by new investors Vertex Growth, SBI Investment Co. Ltd., Farglory, Lesing Nine, Stride Ventures, Tuscan Ventures and Trifecta Capital. The existing investors Vertex Southeast Asia & India and InnoVen Capital also participated in this round. CEO Nitin Chhabra said the funds will be used ‘to develop cutting-edge technological tools that ensure seamless omni-channel operations, acquire licenses for new fashion and lifestyle brands, and recruit skilled talent across all levels to support the aggressive growth plans.” The new cash will also “help us to expand our brand portfolio and solidify our competitive edge in the market,” he said. The India, Singapore, and Malaysia-focused company’s portfolio of licensed brands currently consists of Lee®, Wrangler®, Toys”R”Us® and Babies”R”Us®.
Zyod has raised $3.5 million in a seed round led by Lightspeed Venture India Partners and with participation from FJ Labs, Panthera Peak Capital, and angels. The Gurugram-based startup, which offers apparel sourcing and manufacturing services to fashion brands on a global scale via a B2B platform, claims that it “can disrupt the apparel industry by delivering a new product range in a mere 21 days, with a minimum order quantity of just 50 pieces,” per TechCrunch. “This stands in stark contrast to the traditional supply chain’s 180-day lead time and 2,000-piece minimum order.” The company plans to use the funds to improve technology and hire more people. By adding more manufacturers and suppliers to introducing new features, the company says that it “will continue to focus on building a larger network of MSMEs in the apparel sourcing and manufacturing segment.”
Elyn, a Paris-based startup that enables online merchants to offer consumers a try before they buy option at checkout, has raised €2.5 million ($2.7 million) in a pre-seed round led by Sequoia Arc and Headline, with participation from Motier Ventures (the tech-focused family office of the owners of Galeries Lafayette Group), Financière Saint James, Founders Future’s Marc Menasé, and former Stripe EMEA director Guillaume Princen. “With try-before-you-buy (“TBY”), you only pay for what you decide to keep,” Elyn co-founder and CEO El Mehdi Hachad told TechCRunch. “We are also helping retailers with their returns so that return requests are turned into exchanges directly in the return interface that we provide.” The company’s founders claim that “every major e-commerce brand will offer a TBYB option in the next 12 months.”
Fabacus has raised £4.5M in funding led to accelerate the growth of its data intelligence platform, Xelacore. The round was led by Wealth Club with participation from Tom Singh OBE, Seneca Partners, Inovia, and Mitch Foreman. The London-based provider of a SaaS global licensing platform that connects retail industry license holders, licensees, and end users will use the new funds to accelerate growth and expand its operations and business reach. Founded in 2016, Fabacus claims that existing operating procedures for monitoring licensed IP are “largely siloed,” with license holders “frequently struggling to reconcile royalties” due to a lack of data and lax governance rules.
eBay Inc. has acquired 3PM Shield LLC, a provider of advanced AI-based marketplace compliance solutions. San Jose, California-headquartered eBay said the acquisition will help to enhance its “world-class monitoring solutions with new technologies designed to prevent the sale of counterfeit items, unsafe products and illegal goods.” The marketplace site said in a statement on Feb. 13 that “bringing 3PM Shield to eBay” enables it to bring “advanced marketplace compliance technology in-house … as part of eBay’s ongoing commitment to provide sellers and buyers with a safe and trusted platform enabled by technology.” eBay acquired 3PM Shield LLC, also known as 3PM Solutions, and the deal closed as of February 9, 2023. Further details were not disclosed.
Style3D, a leading digital solution provider in the global fashion industry, has acquired Munich-headquartered Assyst, a leading fashion technology company. Through this acquisition, the terms of which were not disclosed, Style3D says it will gain “a strong foothold in Europe’s fashion technology market” and will “extend its 2D and 3D CAD-integration systems and become uniquely positioned as a solution provider offering fashion companies a 3D-centric, all-in-one, seamless system” in order to “shorten development times and help enhance the efficiency of products to market, thus reducing company costs and associated waste.”
According to Eric Liu, CEO and Founder of Style3D, “Our combined strengths, comprising Assyst’s industry experience and Style3D’s Original Simulation Engine, will create a joint force in the global fashion technology ecosystem, helping companies transform through 3D digitalization.”
Beni announced the close of its seed round of $4 million, led by Buoyant Ventures, bringing its funding from both its pre-seed and seed rounds to over $5 million to date. The Santa Barbara-based company says that it “welcomes shoppers to the world of re-commerce by making it easier to find and buy secondhand apparel and accessories. When a shopper finds something they want, the browser extension suggests similar listings from leading resale sites.”
The company – which has partnered with over 30 resale sites, such as The RealReal, Rent the Runway, Vestiaire Collective, eBay, and Kidizen – stated in a release that “with Poshmark’s recent acquisition by Naver and ThredUp’s projected revenue exceeding $82B by 2026, shoppers are clearly invested in supporting the circular fashion economy. Beni was designed with this in mind, enabling shoppers to save money and shop sustainably with the click of a button.”
Fashion Cloud has raised €25 million in a round led by European specialist growth equity investor Verdane and involving existing investors, including HEARTLAND. The 7-year-old Hamburg-based company, which boasts a B2B data and content exchange portal for fashion wholesalers and retailers, says it will use the new cash to “further develop established features like ‘content’ and ‘order,’ which allow retailers to access marketing material and product data from more than 600 brands.” Additionally the company – whose clients include Zalando, Magasin duNord, Hugo Boss and Scotch & Soda, among others – says it will “develop innovative products and build out its automated reorder suggestions (‘Smart Replenishment’), which ensures that stores have the accurate amount and the appropriate type of articles at any given time.”
In a statement, Fashion Cloud co-founder Alies ter Kuile, said: “Brands and retailers want to be able to work together more easily and effectively. This investment enables Fashion Cloud to take the collaboration between stakeholders to the next level. With strong partners on our side, we will ensure thetransformation of the fashion wholesale industry towards a more efficient and sustainable one.“
Pixyle AI announced the close of a seed funding round, raising €1 million from South Central Ventures in order to “help fashion retailers with image recognition solutions by enabling them to deliver a better online shopping experience, boost e-commerce sales, and improve efficiency in catalogue management with smart product data entry.” Specifically, the Amsterdam-based company – which went live in 2019 and now counts companies like Depot as clients – “connects retailers’ online audience with the products they are really looking to buy” by utilizing “deep learning algorithms to process and tag entire fashion [image] catalogues” and providing companies with “highly accurate product attribute information” that can be used to deliver “better [e-commerce] search experiences.”
In a statement, Pixyle AI founder Svetlana Kordumova said, “Retail footfall has increased post pandemic but online shopping for clothes will continue to grow. We are also encouraged by the growth of the fast-growing fashion resale market, which presents a significant first-mover opportunity for Pixyle AI to help the circular economy take off. We have built algorithms specifically for user-generated images, allowing the AI to detect and recognize fashion items even in blurry, homemade selfies.”
Archive – a tech company building a resale operating system for brands ranging from Oscar de la Rena to North Face – announced a $15 million Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Fernbrook Capital, G9 Ventures, and several minority investors. This round brings the San Francisco-based company’s total funding to more than $24 million to date. Archive will use the new cash to “immediately support hiring across engineering and brand success teams to help [it to] continue to innovate and scale its technology and integrations.” It will also enable Archive to meet “increasing demand from brands to incorporate resale into their businesses, and accelerate upcoming launches across North America and Europe.”
In a statement, Archive, which was founded in February 2021 by Emily Gittins and Ryan Rowe, says that it is known for “building highly differentiated resale programs that seamlessly integrate with a company’s consumer experience,” with the platform enabling brands to “deliver a consistent, premium experience for customers across all markets and channels (physical and digital) and access real-time data on sales, sell-through, conversion, CRM performance and more.”
E-commerce technology and software solutions startup Rokt announced that it now boasts a valuation to $2.4 billion thanks to a “secondary funding round” led by investment firm Square Peg and asset manager Wellington Management, ahead of a planned IPO. This round follows from a December 2021 Series E round led by Tiger Global, which valued New York-based Rokt at $1.95 billion. The company, which uses AI and machine learning to analyze online shoppers and their engagement with products and services, counts companies like Live Nation, Groupon, Staples, Lands’ End, Fanatics, UrbanStems, GoDaddy, Vistaprint and HelloFresh as clients.
“Despite broader market declines in valuations, we continue to see rapid growth in Rokt driven by new ecommerce partners and an uplift from advertisers,” said Bruce Buchanan, CEO of Rokt. “Due to the challenging economic climate, ecommerce companies are focusing on more relevant customer experiences that improve economics and deliver new revenue. This has further propelled Rokt’s growth and we’re pleased to see this expression of support from existing investors as Rokt looks towards an IPO.”
Netail, a technology that enables retailers to auto-identify competitors across the internet and track their assortments, availability and optimize prices in real time, announced the closing of $5 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Magarac Venture Partners, which provides early-stage venture capital to dynamic entrepreneurs and successful technology companies throughout the Midwest.
“Consumer behavior has changed dramatically, and the majority of purchase decisions are now made online via search, marketplaces and social media,” Netail said in a statement. “With retailers struggling to adapt,” the company says that its AI technology is “designed to help them succeed by attracting, converting and retaining customers in these increasingly competitive digital arenas,” noting that “real-time data and decision-making are essential for retailers to better understand how products are positioned.”
Munich-based Sizekick raised €1.3 million for its SaaS solution that aimed to help cut down on returns in the fashion e-commerce space by providing artificial intelligence and computer vision tech-driven sizing. Sizekick CTO Jake Lydon said in a statement, “As a new AI solution, our strategic partnership with Hohenstein enables us to meet the market’s high demand right from the start, and to take on the role of technology leader. Thanks to Hohenstein, our artificial intelligence is already learning from one of the world’s largest and highest-quality databases of 3D body scans. The gigantic advantage this provides our AI cannot be overstated.”
Anti-counterfeiting and digital piracy startup Red Points raised $20 million to further build out its SaaS platform, which is used by brands – ranging from Hugo Boss to Real Madrid and Puma – to fight counterfeits, privacy, impersonation and distribution abuse. The round was led by IRIS VC with participation from existing investors Summit Partners and Eight Roads. (Other previous investors include Mangrove, Northzone and Banc Sabadell.) With the new cash, which brings its total funding to date to more than $75 million, Red Points wants to double down on its go-to-market plans, while also finding the resources to tighten up product features to combat more online fraud and “brand abuse,”
Red Points CEO Laura Urquizu said: “The OECD estimates that counterfeit goods cost the global economy over €450 billion a year, and this is just one of many rising threats that brands and consumers face in digital. Red Points enables companies to bring back revenue and brand equity lost to fraud, and this new funding will help us accelerate the adoption of the technologies that make it happen effectively.”