Six retail technology funding rounds you need to know about
RTIH rounds up the retail systems ventures whose funding rounds have been making headlines of late, including Trigo, Kudos, Tymit, mason, and Penny Black.
1. Kudos
Kudos, a startup whose smart wallet helps users maximise their credit card rewards and hidden benefits like purchase protection and travel insurance when shopping online, has closed a $7 million seed funding round and launched its mobile and desktop extension to the public.
The round, led by Patron, includes investments from QED Investors, SciFi VC, SV Angel, Precursor Ventures, Newtype Ventures, Chingona Ventures, and over 40 angel investors.
The cash will enable Kudos, which was founded in 2021 by a team from companies including Google, Affirm and PayPal, to further develop its smart wallet product.
The company will also allocate funds toward future initiatives, including the launch of additional cashback boosts across 12,000 merchant partners.
2. Trigo
Checkout free stores specialist Trigo has bagged $100 million in funding, reaching a total of $204 million raised to date.
The investment was led by Singapore state investment firm Temasek (TEM.UL), and 83North.
New strategic investors include SAP and existing backers also joined the round, including Hetz Ventures, Red Dot Capital Partners, Vertex Ventures, Viola, and supermarket giant REWE Group.
3. Penny Black
Penny Black, an e-commerce platform that turns packaging into a marketing channel, has received £1.3 million in seed funding from AGFA and ninepointfive.
Incubated in AGFA’s innovation lab, supported by ninepointfive, Penny Black launched independently in the UK and Europe in April.
Its software connects e-commerce stores, marketing tools and fulfilment operations to deliver personalised experiences at the moment customers open their e-commerce packages.
The startup works with the likes of luxury jewellery and watch retailer, PAUL VALENTINE, tea mixology company, Bird & Blend and the online nursery décor store, the Modern Nursery.
Penny Black has also partnered with global e-commerce fulfilment providers, like Radial and Cloud Fulfillment, as well as marketing automation firm Klaviyo.
4. Tymit
Buy now, pay later specialist Tymit has closed a £23 million Series A funding round, taking its total investment to date to £33 million.
This was led by Frasers Group, the British retailer that owns Sports Direct, Jack Wills and Game.
Tymit will use the cash to accelerate its product development and support the launch of its B2B2C instalment programme proposition for merchants.
The company will also continue to invest in its consumer proposition which is currently live with over 40,000 active users and in the last 12 months processed £75 million in transactions.
5. Ambi Robotics
Ambi Robotics has secured $32 million in additional funding.
Existing investors Tiger Global and Bow Capital are joined by Ahren and the company’s strategic partner, Pitney Bowes. The cash will fuel the deployment growth of AI powered parcel sorting systems.
Total funding to date stands at $67 million.
“Consumer shopping behaviour is demanding a more modern warehouse. The strains of surging parcel volume shouldn’t rest on the shoulders of the supply chains’ most valued asset – people,” says Jim Liefer, CEO at Ambi Robotics.
“It’s humbling to see such sophisticated investors stepping forward and contributing to the success of our mission to empower people to handle more.”
6. mason
E-commerce platform startup mason has announced a $7.5 million seed funding round led by Accel and Ideaspring Capital with participation from Lightspeed India Partners as well as Mana VC, Gaingels, Core91 and VH Capital.
Founders Barada Sahu and Kausambi Manjita spent time building solutions at Myntra, Flipkart, Walmart, Paytm (an Alibaba company) with the aim of helping merchants break free from the Amazon model.
They met at Myntra - Walmart’s fashion arm in Asia - where they had been building a custom engine to run stores, improve revenue and drive conversions for brands on the marketplace.
Manjita comments: “This changes the game fundamentally on how brands think about their D2C store today. Most brands are left with no option but to sell at marketplaces like Amazon and pay 35c for every dollar simply because running a profitable standalone D2C store is just too hard.”
“With access to their own growth engine like mason, brands can actually transform their D2C storefront into their most profitable channel, getting 50% uplift in their margins from day one.”
“By democratising access to a complex tech stack, from data-driven merchandising, to sales automation, to personalisation - the team is helping more entrepreneurs stay independent, become profitable, and not sell out to a Thrasio.”
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