Last week’s most read RTIH retail technology articles

These are the retail systems articles that caught your fancy during the past seven days, including Instacart, Deliveroo, Watsons, DoorDash and Sainsbury’s.

Amazon veteran Devesh Mishra joins Deliveroo as Chief Product and Technology Officer

Deliveroo has announced the appointment of Devesh Mishra as Chief Product and Technology Officer.

He joins from Amazon, where he has spent the past 16 years.

Most recently, Mishra was Vice President, Global Supply Chain at the e-commerce giant, overseeing a team of thousands made up of engineers, data scientists and product managers, operating a supply chain spanning 185 markets.

Before that, he was Director for Amazon’s WW Inventory Buying and Sourcing, where he was responsible for over 200 product lines in nine countries, supporting +$40 billion of revenue.

Facebook wannabe Instacart should rethink MFCs move

US grocery delivery venture Instacart has been making a series of interesting moves as it prepares to launch an IPO later in 2021 or early 2022.

This includes naming Fidji Simo, a high ranking executive at Facebook, as CEO. In turn, Simo recently chose Facebook veteran Carolyn Everson to be Instacart's President.

“I like the changes as it provides Instacart with a more experienced executive team to run the company,” former Amazon exec and supply chain consultant Brittain Ladd said in a LinkedIn post.

Instacart also recently partnered with Fabric to open micro-fulfilment centres (MFCs), although Ladd is less impressed with this initiative.

Ten big retail technology funding rounds you need to know about

RTIH rounds up the retail tech ventures who have recently bagged significant investments, including MakerSights, FullStory, refurbed, Cart.com, Suma Brands and Trendyol.

Silent Sainsbury's falls victim to Led By Donkeys PR stunt over GB News ads

#SilentSainsburys was trending on Twitter earlier this month as the grocery giant came under increasing pressure to stop advertising during Nigel Farage’s new show on GB News.

PMC’s Paul Mason wins at Retail Systems Awards 2021

PMC Founder and Chairman, Paul Mason, has picked up the Outstanding Individual Achievement award at the Retail Systems Awards 2021.

DoorDash preps investment in controversial startup Gorillas

DoorDash, the US’s largest food delivery company, is set to take a stake in Gorillas, the Germany-based grocery delivery startup.

Gorillas is seeking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars of funding at a valuation of about $2.5 billion, far below the $6 billion it was previously working towards, according to media reports.

Getir inks first football club partnership deal with Tottenham Hotspur

Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur has announced a three-year sponsorship deal with Turkish rapid grocery delivery startup Getir.

DPD UK makes same day delivery move with CitySprint deal

Parcel delivery firm, DPD UK, part of DPDgroup, is set to acquire same day delivery company, CitySprint.

Watsons begins Foundation Finder AI tool roll-out

Asian health and beauty brand, Watsons, has launched its artificial intelligence powered Foundation Finder tool in its mobile app for Watsons Hong Kong and Malaysia customers.

This will also later be rolled out to other Asian markets including the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Ten retail technology investments that should be on your radar

These companies are leading the way in providing innovative retail tech powered customer experiences, including Best Buy, Watsons, New Look, Sodexo and John Lewis Partnership.