RTIH presents the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail systems news? Then this is the article for you. Including Aldi UK, AiFi, Tesco Whoosh, Buyk, Mention Me, and Wayve.
$25 million…Mention Me, a referral engineering platform for e-commerce brands, has announced a $25 million Series B round, led by Octopus Ventures.
130…Aldi UK has ended its relationship with Deliveroo and pulled 130 stores nationwide from the food delivery platform.
“We have decided to end our trial with Deliveroo to focus on our Click and Collect service, which remains on offer at more than 200 of our stores nationwide,” an Aldi spokesperson told RTIH.
$200 million…London-based autonomous mobility startup Wayve has announced a $200 million Series B funding round.
This will enable it to grow its team, develop a Level 4+ AV prototype for passenger vehicles and delivery vans, scale its deployments on partner fleets to commence last mile delivery pilots, and develop the data infrastructure to improve its core autonomy platform at fleet scale.
15…Buyk, a startup that promises food delivery from dark store to doorstep within 15 minutes, has rolled out a new range of private label products, a first, it says, for the ultrafast grocery industry in the US.
Buyk was founded by Slava Bocharov and Rodion Shishkov. The pair also co-founded Samokat, Russia’s largest grocery delivery company, in 2018 before selling their stake to fund Buyk.
25…Żabka Group says that it now has the largest chain of autonomous stores in Europe after launching 25 Żabka Nano locations across Poland.
These operate in several formats such as standalone shipping container-based stores, traditional bricks and mortar and store within a store points of sale, each leveraging AI powered computer vision technology created in cooperation with AiFi.
34 and 350…Retail optimisation technology provider, RELEX Solutions, added 34 new retailers as customers during 2021, bringing its total retail customer base to more than 350 companies worldwide.
$299 million…The Sage Group, a specialist in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for SMEs, has completed the acquisition of Brightpearl, a cloud native omnichannel operating system for retailers and wholesalers.
Sage already had a 17% minority stake in Brightpearl. The consideration for the other 83% is $299 million, which will be funded from the former’s existing cash and available liquidity.
1…Discount retailer Aldi UK has launched its first checkout-free location.
The Aldi Shop&Go concept store in Greenwich, London opened this week for public testing, having been tested by staff members in recent months.
The system, provided by AiFi, uses specially positioned cameras.
Those people wishing to buy alcohol, or other Challenge 25 products, will be able to use facial age estimation technology, provided by Yoti, to authorise their purchase.
£21 million…UK vertical farming startup Vertical Future has secured £21 million in what is pitched as Europe’s largest ever Series A raise in the sector.
$5 million…Zowie, which has developed an AI powered customer service automation tool and works with the likes of L’Oreal, and InPost, has announced a $5 million seed round co-led by Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI focused investment fund) and 10x.
81%…Nisa has announced a UK wide roll-out of Jisp’s augmented reality vouchering system, Scan & Save, to independent retailers.
The move follows a pilot, which delivered 82,116 scans, 40,001 taps and 32,895 redemptions on Scan & Save branded AR vouchers from September to December.
Participating retailers accumulated a combined discount redemption value of £36,211 with over 2,300 unique shoppers, 81%, becoming repeat redeemers.
$335 million and $2 billion…Warehouse robotics specialist Exotec has secured $335 million in Series D funding at a $2 billion valuation.
63% and 38%…UK consumers (63%) are almost twice as likely as their German counterparts (38%) to either abandon their online shopping basket or switch retailer if delivery options are too slow or don’t meet their needs, according to a new BearingPoint report.
5…US-based online grocer Farmstead has opened a waitlist for its upcoming Chicago launch.
Service is scheduled to begin in early 2022, and will initially be available in both the city of Chicago and nearby suburbs, with delivery in as little as one hour.
Chicago is Farmstead’s fifth market. The company’s service originated in the San Francisco Bay area, and it also serves Miami, Fla. and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, NC.
$7.59 million…Invenda Group has closed a $7.59 million funding round and expanded its board of directors.
19,000…A new IBM survey of over 19,000 consumers across 28 countries shows hybrid shopping is on the rise as habits consumers adopted out of necessity during the Covid-19 pandemic become routine.
Retailers must become more agile to meet customers where they are, integrating digital and in-store experiences, IBM says.
600…Tesco’s one-hour delivery service Whoosh will be available from at least 600 of the grocery giant’s stores by the end of next year.
