Seven retail technology funding rounds you need to know about
RTIH rounds up the retail systems ventures who have been making waves with major investments, including Bidnamic, Firework, buywith, Nomagic, and Shellworks.
1. BUD
BUD, a metaverse user-generated platform built on a mobile app, has announced a $36.8 million Series B funding round.
This was led by Sequoia Capital India, and brings BUD’s total financing to over $60 million.
Founded in 2019 by former Snap engineers, Risa Feng and Shawn Lin, the Singapore-based firm enables users to create and share 3D interactive experiences.
It intends to use the fresh funding to develop its creation tools, grow its global user base and roll-out Web3 products for its metaverse ecosystem. This includes the launch of its own NFT marketplace.
2. Stable
FinTech startup Stable has secured a $60 million Series B investment.
The round was led by Acrew with Greycroft, Notion Capital, Syngenta and Continental Grain Company also participating. Acrew’s Vishal Lugani will join Stable’s Board of Directors.
Covid and the war in Ukraine are causing supply chain disruptions around the world, casting the agrifood industry into uncharted waters. 44% of the world's supply of Wheat, Sunflower and Rye comes from Ukraine, which is causing a huge secondary wave of volatility across the industry and is threatening the survival of many critical parts of the supply chain.
Stable uses data science to manage risk against price rises. Clients customise a contract to insure themselves against volatile prices and payouts are automated. Most businesses are shut out of ‘hedging’ because it is too expensive or inaccessible, but this democratises it, Stable claims.
3. Firework
Livestreaming commerce platform, Firework, has bagged $150 million in Series B financing, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
Total funding to date is $235 million.
“With this investment, our growth engine is firing on all cylinders,” says Firework Co-Founder and CEO Vincent Yang.
“Our core technology and business model have already been proven in the market many times over, and with this capital to realise our vision, Firework can now focus most of our efforts on evolution and growth, in all its forms – growing our team, growing our user base, and growing our technology, to ensure our platform never loses step with the bleeding edge of next-generation customer experience.”
4. Shellworks
Biotech venture Shellworks has raised $6.2 million in seed funding led by LocalGlobe.
Founder Collective, True Global, BoxGroup, Divergent Capital and angels including Deepali Nangia (Alma Angels founder), Julien Callede (Made co-founder), Bryan Meehan (former Blue Bottle Coffee CEO) and Grant Aarons (FabricNano co-founder and CEO) also participated in the round.
The company will use the cash to scale its technology and invest in commercial growth as it looks to put an end to single-use plastics, starting with the beauty industry.
Shellworks was founded in 2019 by Insiya Jafferjee and Amir Afshar (pictured above) who met during their Masters at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College of London.
Jafferjee says: “Our vision is to break the reliance on the petroleum industry by building a new standard of packaging that is performant, cost-competitive and truly sustainable.”
“We work at the intersection of two ecosystems, the natural and the commercial, and we’re constantly trying to play a meaningful, connected and consistent role in both.”
“The beauty industry creates 120 billion units of plastic packaging annually and we're committed to providing a scalable solution to tackle this. We’re incredibly grateful that we've identified a group of investors who share this vision.”
5. Bidnamic
Google Shopping e-commerce marketing platform Bidnamic has completed a $5 million Series A funding round led by Gresham House Ventures.
This marks the UK-based venture’s first institutional investment.
The round also included existing angel investors, such as Marin Mayer, co-founder of Booking.com, Chris Forrest, board advisor to Net-A-Porter, and Luke Judge, former CEO at Incubeta.
The Series A cash will fuel R&D projects and expansion into the US market.
6. buywith
Livestream shopping startup, buywith, has completed a $9.5 million seed round.
The venture’s platform enables brands, retailers, influencers and experts to host live shopping events on any e-commerce site.
The seed round was led by igniteXL Ventures, who was joined by Fab Co-Creation Studio Ventures, Alibaba.com’s former Europe and North American President John Caplan, and Alibaba.com’s North America General Manager Kevin Ambrosini, Regah Ventures, Irani CVC and True.
7. Nomagic
Nomagic, a provider of robotics systems for order fulfilment, has raised $22 million.
It will use the cash for both growing and expanding its business.
Khosla Ventures, Almaz Capital and the European Investment Bank led the round.
Nomagic has received over $30 million in total funding
