Six 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 Food Rocket, Clerk, DoDo Group, and Conjura.
1. Conjura
E-commerce data analytics platform startup, Conjura, has raised €15 million in Series A funding.
The round was co-led by Act Venture Capital and MiddleGame Ventures, with participation from Tribal VC.
Conjura, which was founded in 2018, will use the capital to enhance its e-commerce solutions to “address the sector’s ever increasing digital needs in a multi-product solution”.
The company is also planning to broaden its UK and Ireland operations and expand into several international markets simultaneously.
2. Freshflow
Freshflow, a German startup whose AI powered platform helps grocery retailers tackle stockouts and food waste, has raised €1.7 million in a seed funding round led by Capnamic and World Fund.
Angel investors also included Alexander Mrozek, CEO at Dr. Oetker Digital, and Jens Fiege and Felix Fiege, CEOs at FIEGE Logistics.
Freshflow, whose product is being used in several locations of one of Germany’s largest grocery retailers, as well as a 15 minute grocery delivery company in Eastern Europe, will use the funding to expand its workforce and grow its offering to 100 stores across Europe.
3. Food Rocket
15 minute grocery delivery service, Food Rocket, has announced a $25 million Series A investment round.
This will be used to expand its offering in Chicago and other cities throughout the US, as well as reinforce its AI enabled software and enhance the team.
The lead investor is Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT), which has more than 14,000 Circle K and Couche-Tard locations in 26 countries and territories, including 7,000+ in the US.
4. Clerk
Clerk has bagged $30 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Sageview Capital.
Clerk will use the funding to accelerate the buildout of its platform.
It has launched a SaaS merchandising product that uses machine learning to make sure products are in-stock and shelved correctly. It has also developed a digital advertising network, Grocery TV.
"Bricks and mortar stores are overdue for a digital transformation," says Marlow Nickell, CEO at Clerk.
"Although 90% of US grocery sales still happen in stores, brands and retailers often don't have a simple way to manage store performance and product interactions like they do online — our team wants to change that.”
“This investment will get us closer to providing our retail and advertising partners full transparency into their store experience, from understanding how their products are performing to measuring customer engagement with in-store touchpoints."
5. Cheq
Cheq, a FinTech startup enabling cryptocurrency payments, has closed a $2 million pre-seed round led by Connect Ventures, alongside Semantic Ventures, firstminute Capital, and 30 angels including former leadership from Monzo, Revolut and Tide.
It says that the funding will enable it to “establish itself as the primary option for taking payment with stablecoins that are pegged to the US dollar, removing price volatility for both merchant and consumer”
“The result is a user experience similar to traditional payment platforms but without intermediary fees and cumbersome approval requirements.”
Cheq can be used with any wallet and supports payments on the Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain or Polygon chains.
6. DoDo Group
Czech firm DoDo Group, which specialises in last mile B2B logistics technology, has announced a €60 million Series B funding round led by EC Investments and J&T Capital.
The cash will be used to further develop DoDo’s platform and drive its expansion into Western and Southern Europe.
This is the company’s largest investment to date, following a year which saw it nearly double its annual revenue to almost €40 million.
DoDo’s network of over 2,000 couriers in seven countries combined to deliver over four million shipments in 2021, and it is looking to increase turnover to over €80 million in 2022.
