20 retail technology startups powering a new era of retail

RTIH brings you 20 tech startups who are driving change in the omnichannel retail space.

1. Starship Technologies

Starship Technologies’ robots are currently delivering shopping to Milton Keynes NHS staff for free during the coronavirus outbreak.

The US venture was named Startup of the Year at the first ever RTIH Innovation Awards.

2. Edited

Retail data company Edited has raised just over £23 million in a funding round headed up by Beringea and Wavecrest Growth Partners. Hermes GPE also took part.

3. Stravito

Stravito was founded in 2017. It counts the likes of Danone and Carlsberg as clients and has bagged €8 million in funding from European investors. RTIH recently met up with CEO and Co-founder Thor Olof Philogène to get the lowdown on this fast growing startup.

4. Poplar

Poplar is an augmented reality creative platform that provides on-demand campaigns for brands.

“Through the power of AR, we hope to help people transform reality by building a more intuitive and fun world for everyone,” founder David Ripert told RTIH.

5. Cosmose AI

Cosmose AI recently appointed Karol Kurach as Chief Technology Officer.

Cosmose is an analytics software provider that anticipates how people shop offline. Late last year, it raised $12 million seed investment, led by TDJ Pitango and OTB Ventures, to fund its international expansion.

6. NearSt

Earlier this year, NearSt, whose technology links products on shop shelves in real-time to nearby customers searching in Google, landed £2 million in seed funding.

7. Ada

AI-powered customer service chatbot startup Ada has raised $44 million in a Series B funding round led by Accel.

8. For Good Causes

Rakuten and BP recently joined the For Good Causes charitable giving platform.

This unites brands and retailers with more than 20,000 charities, enabling consumers to donate their loyalty and reward points to causes that are close to their heart.

9. Carryr

Carryr is on a mission to “supercharge the end-to-end delivery experience for fashion retailers and their customers”.

Check out our recent interview with Co-founder and CEO, Chris Jordan, here.

10. Deep North

Computer vision and AI-powered video analytics company, Deep North, has raised $25.7 million in Series A funding.

11. CitrusAd

E-commerce advertising platform CitrusAd has appointed Christian Lopez as Solutions Architect.

The Australian startup’s first tech hire in the US, he joins from HookLogic/Criteo and will lead product innovation and retailer onboarding from CitrusAd’s new Los Angeles office (the company’s sixth international office opening).

12. Threekit

Visual technology venture, Threekit, has announced Matt Gorniak as CEO.

Gorniak most recently served as Chief Revenue Officer and is the co-founder of G2, a marketplace for business software reviews. Prior to that, he held sales leadership positions at Steelbrick and BigMachines, cloud Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) platforms that were acquired by Salesforce and Oracle respectively.

In November 2019, Shasta Ventures and Salesforce Ventures backed Threekit in a Series A round of $20 million.

13. Luxury Promise

Luxury Promise, an online marketplace for the resale of luxury goods and accessories, has raised £3 million from VC firm Beringea, the former backer of Monica Vinader and Watchfinder.

The Series A funding also included existing investor Lloyd Amsdon, co-founder of Watchfinder, which was acquired by Richemont in 2018.

14. Anchor Shops

Anchor Shops is part of the ShopFulfill ecosystem, which provides companies with a complete retail infrastructure as well as an e-commerce fulfilment and logistics solution.

15. Zeekit

Asos has ramped up its use of augmented reality technology to simulate real-life model photography in response to the Covid- 19 pandemic.

Using technology developed by Israeli firm Zeekit and trialled at the start of the year in See My Fit, the pureplay will be offering customers a simulated view of up to 500 products each week on six real life models.

16. SupplyCompass

SupplyCompass is one of eight startups taking part in the fourth edition of FarFetch’s Dream Assembly fashion technology accelerator.

17. Clekt

Data insights startup Clekt has announced a string of hires as it gears up for a May launch.

Andy Tudor is taking on the role of CEO, Claudia Hesleden is COO, Ian Cray CTO (and Founder) and Alan Morris Chairman.

18. Back Market

Back Market, which operates a marketplace for refurbished smartphones and electronics devices. has announced a new $120 million funding round from Goldman Sachs, Aglaé Ventures and Eurazeo Growth.

19. huggg

huggg recently repurposed its microgifting platform to get Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s vouchers to families eligible for free school meals during the coronavirus outbreak.

20. Peak

Artificial intelligence venture Peak recently announced a $12 million extended Series A funding round led by existing investors MMC Ventures and Praetura Ventures.

This brought its total amount of funding to $18.5 million. Peak, whose customers include PepsiCo, Asos and boohoo, will use the cash to support its expansion plans and to ramp up investment in R&D.