RTIH reviews the retail technology space in February
RTIH takes a look back at an eventful month for the retail systems sector, including rapid grocery delivery services, mega funding rounds, and dodgy online order substitutions.
Good month for…
fabric, a startup that provides a headless platform for e-commerce experiences, closed a Series C funding round of $140 million led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Forerunner Ventures, Glynn Capital and existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Norwest Ventures and Stripes.
RELEX Solutions closed a €500 million funding round led by funds managed by Blackstone Growth (BXG), Blackstone’s growth equity investing business.
This put its valuation at €5 billion.
UK-based e-commerce startup Hullabalook secured $8.2 million in a funding round led by Nauta Capital and supported by existing investors Conviction VC and Passion Capital.
Chinese beauty retailer, HARMAY, concluded its Series C and D rounds of financing, raising a combined $200 million.
The Series C was led by General Atlantic and the Series D by QY Capital, with Eastern Bell Capital, N5 Capital, Ocean Link, Hillhouse Venture, and BA Capital among the co-investors.
Smart data capture specialist, Scandit, announced a Series D funding round of $150 million at a valuation in excess of $1 billion.
This was led by Warburg Pincus, and included participation from Scandit’s existing shareholder base, including Atomico, Forestay Capital, G2VP, GV, Kreos, NGP Capital, Schneider Electric, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV and Swisscom Ventures.
Shopware, a digital commerce software solutions provider in the DACH region, raised $100 million in funding from Carlyle and PayPal.
This was the first outside funding that Shopware had ever raised, the venture having been bootstrapped since it was founded in 2000.
Logistics tech company Veho announced a $170 million Series B raise led by Tiger Global with participation from SoftBank Vision, at a $1.5+ billion valuation.
Rapid grocery delivery startup Zapp raised $200 million in a Series B round of funding co-led by Lightspeed, 468 Capital, and BroadLight Capital.
Bad month for…
Aldi was declared the worst UK supermarket for online order substitutions by Which?
The consumer group asked over 1,300 shoppers whether they had received a substitution with their latest grocery order, covering nine retailers.
It found that overall, two in five had received a replacement item.
Almost 135,000 UK bricks and mortar retail jobs were lost during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to GMB analysis of official figures.
Also this month…
Carrefour opened its first BIO store in the UAE, featuring the retailer’s first ever café and an in-store hydroponic farm.
With over 3,000 items to choose from, the store specialises in healthy and organic products spanning from food and beverages to beauty, personal, and home care items.
Amazon filed lawsuits against two fake customer review brokers, AppSally and Rebatest, who, the e-commerce giant claims, helped mislead shoppers by having their members try to post on the likes of Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Etsy.
Ocado Group signed a memorandum of understanding with French partner, Groupe Casino, enabling it to offer its technology to other grocers in France.
The former previously had an exclusivity agreement to work only with Groupe Casino in France.
On-demand delivery platform, DoorDash, introduced an express grocery delivery service in partnership with Albertsons Companies.
As part of the launch, consumers in more than 20 cities across the US, including Los Angeles, Denver, and Seattle, will now be able to access the service from their local Albertsons Cos. banner stores including Safeway, Vons, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, and Tom Thumb in 30 minutes or less via the DoorDash marketplace.
DoorDash plans to expand the offering to additional Albertsons Cos. banners in the coming weeks.
Walmart is testing out reusable tote bags as part of its InHome delivery service, which is expanding across the US.
The pilot project is part of a broader effort by the retailer to move toward reusable, recyclable or industrially compostable packaging and reach zero waste in its own operations in the US and Canada by 2025.
Tesco extended its rapid grocery delivery partnership with Gorillas to Manchester.
Customers living near Tesco’s Stretford Extra store can now order from a large range of the retailer’s products in the Gorillas app, and get them delivered within 10 minutes.
Amazon is now offering its Just Walk Out checkout experience in its Whole Foods Market division.
It has gone live with the autonomous tech at a new 21,500-sq.-ft. Whole Foods store in Washington, D.C.’s Glover Park neighbourhood.
Instacart and Lowe's are teaming up to pilot same day delivery in as fast as one hour.
Customers can now have approximately 20,000 Lowe's items, including small home appliances, building supplies, light fixtures, garden and outdoor essentials, delivered from the store to their door.
The service is initially available in Boston and Charlotte, with plans to expand in the coming months.
Lowe's is the first dedicated home improvement partner available on the Instacart marketplace.
Target began testing the option for customers in select markets to add a Starbucks order or make a return within its curbside service via the retailer’s app.
Target will also expand its “backup item” functionality in even more categories to allow people to pick up everything on their lists.
This is part of its strategy of using its nearly 2,000 stores as fulfilment hubs, powering its suite of contactless same-day services.
Carrefour made its hypermarkets and supermarkets available on the Everli same-day grocery delivery platform in 10 French cities: Lille, Lyon, Nice, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nantes, Grenoble, Rennes, Paris and their surrounding suburbs.
H&M, the world's second biggest clothing retailer, is set to double investments in 2022 to $1.1 billion as it looks to significantly grow sales by 2030.
Spending will focus on areas including technology, supply chain, renewable energy and sustainable materials.
Gorillas said it was abandoning its 10 minute grocery delivery guarantee, and was instead promising to “deliver in minutes" with no guarantee of when the order will arrive.
In addition, the company will remove its logos and other advertising from across the windows of its dark stores.
