Five retail tech funding rounds you need to know about

RTIH rounds up the retail technology ventures who have been making waves with major investments.

1. Pandion

E-commerce delivery startup Pandion has emerged from stealth mode and raised $4.9 million in seed funding

The round was led by Playground Global and Schematic Ventures, with participation from AME Cloud Ventures and Innovation Endeavors.

Founder and CEO Scott Ruffin was the Founder and Head of Amazon Air and most recently was VP and Head of Walmart’s E-commerce Transportation division.

#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/HmzjxmhV6P
— Pandion (@pandionpro) February 2, 2021

2. Vivino

Wine recommendation venture Vivino has raised $155 million in Series D funding to develop its artificial intelligence platform.

10 years ago, @heinizach saw a void in the wine industry - there was no easy way to determine which wine to buy and which to leave on the shelf. "Disrupting Wine, The Life of an Entrepreneur" captures Heini's journey building Vivino. https://t.co/I6t1hdus8s #startups #founder pic.twitter.com/yGFmtPiHiJ
— Vivino (@vivino) July 23, 2020

3. Fabric

Headless e-commerce platform startup, Fabric, has announced a $43 million Series A funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Redpoint Ventures and Sierra Ventures.

This follows on from the company bagging $9.5 million in seed funding, and will be used to accelerate product development and expand its team.

We are thrilled to announce our Series A investment in @fabric_commerce, a headless commerce platform purpose-built for growth, founded by @FaisMasud and @rybartley.

Norwest partner @sbeechuk shares the story behind our investment here: https://t.co/mOuKbKys4l pic.twitter.com/Dapc4B4X8A
— Norwest (@NorwestVP) February 9, 2021

4. Maisonette

Maisonette, an online marketplace featuring children's products from around the globe, has bagged $30 million in Series B funding. The round was led by G Squared, with previous investors NEA and Thrive Capital also participating.

Maisonette closed a $15 million Series A round in 2018, bringing the total raised to more than $50 million.

"As consumers went online for more and more of their shopping needs over the last year, we saw demand for Amazon alternatives grow," says Larry Aschebrook, Managing Partner, G Squared.

"Maisonette was positioned well and responded quickly to the shift by offering merchandise that consumers sought, 40% of which is exclusive to Maisonette or is hard to find elsewhere.”

“It delivered a timely and robust platform that many retailers needed to reach a large, collective audience of shoppers online."

Although our work has just begun, but we are committed to transparency on our journey to becoming a more equitable company and community. We've outlined our initial steps in our first-ever DEI Report which will occur biannually and posted on our website.https://t.co/kEKCcIYcum
— Maisonette (@MaisonetteWorld) February 10, 2021

5. Ubamarket

Private equity firm IW Capital has completed a £800,000 investment in the latest round of a £2.9 million raise for scan, pay and go venture, Ubamarket.

The top-up will be used to accelerate the company’s expansion into new industries such as hospitality, where it will be pushing its NOMM (New Order Magic Menu) app.