Ten 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 Postscript, Knit, Rohlik, LogRocket, Sales Layer, and Dastgyr.
1. Peckwater Brands
Peckwater Brands has secured £15 million in a Series A seed funding round.
This follows a £3 million seed round in October 2021, bringing the firm’s post-money valuation to £65 million.
Founded in 2019, Peckwater Brands builds delivery only food brands, driven by data led customer insight, for restaurants in the UK. The orders are cooked and delivered from existing kitchens alongside their day-to-day operations.
The business operates a mix of licensed brands spanning several categories including chicken (Seoul Chikin, Flip the Bird, Wham Bam Wings, Katsu), burgers (Dukes, Proper Tasty) and has also run shared brands with partners such as Unilever, Buzzfeed, and Heinz.
2. Postscript
Postscript, which enables Shopify merchants to send more personalised texts to customers, has bagged $65 million in Series C funding.
Dick Costolo’s venture firm 01 Advisors led the round, with participation from Twilio Ventures, Expanding Capital, m]x[v Capital, and existing investors at Greylock, Accomplice, Elephant, and OpenView.
"In the same way texting changed the way people communicate with each other, Postscript transformed how brands communicate with their customers," says Costolo.
"We invest in companies with strong product market fit that are focused on further innovation and scale to bring them into their next phase of growth, and Postscript is the epitome of this profile. They are the future of commerce."
3. Knit
Gen Z and Millennial consumer insights startup, Knit, has announced an oversubscribed seed funding round of $3.55 million.
The round was led by Silicon Road Ventures with participation from Bread and Butter Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Bootstrappers.mn, Operate Studio, and TiE Global Angels.
Knit’s technology enables customers to tap into Gen Z and Millennial consumers to gather video feedback and quantitative data.
Brands working with the company include NASCAR, WNBA, Harman International (JBL Speakers), and Moët Hennessey.
With the investment, the US-based venture will continue to build out its technology and expand its non-Gen Z panel to become a cross-generational solution for a global customer base, starting with EMEA and LATAM.
4. Rohlik
Czech online grocer, Rohlik, has announced a Series D funding round to the tune of €220 million.
The company said in a LinkedIn post: “We've always marched to our own tune, defying and redefining the retail grocery market. And our investors are seeing this, which is why they have jumped on board our Series D funding round.”
“Led by new investor Sofina, most of the existing investors also participated.”
“This investment is a strong vote of confidence in our fundamentals - whilst the rest of the e-grocery and quick commerce market is experiencing a downturn, our full-basket customer experience is bucking this trend, with revenues surging 52% from the previous 12 months to half a billion euros.”
Total funding has now exceeded €500 million. The Series D cash will be used to accelerate tech innovations, including automation of fulfilment centres, electric mobility, and further expansion in existing countries.
5. Bolt Insight
London-based Bolt Insight, which helps brands quickly collect market research in 120+ countries, has received £1.275 million investment from VC company 212.
This is its second seed round. The startup previously raised €300,000.
The cash will be used to develop new products for customers, employ new staff in its research and commercial teams, as well as furthering plans for expansion to additional markets.
Bolt Insight, which launched in January 2020, has landed such clients as Vodafone, Capco, Brand Finance, Sodexo, Premier Foods, L’Oreal, Samsung, Diageo and Zeiss.
6. Khazenly
Khazenly, a Cairo-based on-demand digital warehousing and fulfilment platform, has announced a seed fund raise of $2.5 million.
This was co-led by Arzan Venture Capital, and Shorooq Partners. Other backers included Camel Ventures, Averroes Ventures, and various angel investors.
Proceeds will be used to develop Khazenly’s products and services, and quadruple its existing facilities.
Geographical expansion will also be supported.
7. Dastgyr
VEON Ventures has made a $15 million Series A investment in Pakistan B2B marketplace provider Dastgyr.
Alongside other investors, the funding round weighed in at $37 million.
“We are thrilled to achieve this milestone in the current global economic environment,” says Zohaib Ali, Co-founder of Dastgyr.
“We welcome the new investors to the Dastgyr family as we continue to work relentlessly toward our vision of building an Alibaba for emerging markets worldwide”
“ We’re lucky to have found strategic partners who believe in our mission and have displayed unwavering faith in our team.”
“Financial inclusion, which is central to the startup’s mission, will uplift and enable Pakistan’s small- and medium-sized retail entrepreneurs, potentially unlocking up to an additional $ 0 billion for the country’s GDP, according to our estimates.”
8. BotsAndUs
BotsAndUs has secured $13 million in seed funding to expand its autonomous logistics solution globally.
Lakestar lead the round, with participation from Maersk Growth, Kindred Capital, and Capnamic.
BotsAndUs collects real-time insights using autonomous, mobile robots to quickly process pallets at every stage in their journey throughout a warehouse.
Triggered by the arrival of goods, their robots capture the volume and condition as they enter and leave the warehouse. The same robots scan goods on shelves and record their location and quantity.
9. LogRocket
LogRocket, a provider of software frontend monitoring and analytics services, has raised $25 million in a Series C round co-led by Delta-V Capital and Battery Ventures.
“We continue to be extremely excited by LogRocket’s growth, as software development becomes increasingly driven by time and energy spent on improving the front-end user experience,” says Battery’s Neeraj Agrawal.
“LogRocket’s cutting-edge technology allows software teams to refine products faster and in a more collaborative way, across developers, product managers, and others. This latest infusion of capital will help take the company to its next level of growth, including developing a sharper focus on enterprise customers.”
10. Sales Layer
Sales Layer, a PIM (Product Information Management) SaaS platform provider for B2B, has landed $25 million in Series B funding, led by PeakSpan Capital.
This follows on from the $3.5 million raised by Sales Layer’s Series A investors, Swanlaab and Bright Pixel, in 2020.
The Series B will accelerate the firm’s global growth, hiring across all functions while continuing the expansion of international operations.
