Top 10: last week’s most essential retail technology articles

These are the RTIH articles that caught your fancy last week, including Westfield London, Walmart, Symbotic, Deliveroo, Criteo, H&M Group, Google Cloud, and Martin Schofield of Retail247.

Money management apps flourish as consumers face cost of living crisis

An analysis of the performance of money management apps over the past two years by App Radar has revealed that the sector has gained over five million new Android users in the period 1st January to 7th June 2022.

That is a 46% increase when compared to the same period in 2021, which saw the sector reach just over four million app downloads. 

The surge in users shows that consumers are looking for new ways to make their money go further during the cost of living crisis.

TAGR raises $1.15 million for mobile self-checkout platform

Australia-based retail technology startup TAGR has raised $1.15 million.

Its scan and pay platform enables retailers to offer mobile checkout to their customers within a 48 hour period, with integration to their PoS system.

TAGR says that the seed round involved a number of investors, retail brands and high net worth individuals.

The capital injection will be used to build globally supported infrastructure and penetrate the US and North America markets come August/September.

Since its launch in early January, TAGR has bagged more than 10,000 users among a handful of stores.

Westfield London hosts Williams Racing F1 pop-up

Westfield London hosted an immersive pop-up experience from Formula One team Williams Racing ahead of the British Grand Prix.

Taking place from Monday 27th June to Sunday 3rd July, this was open from 10am to 9pm.

Adwisely secures $1.5m seed round led by TMT Investments

Adwisely, formerly known as RetargetApp, an ad automation platform for e-commerce DTC brands, has secured a $1.5 million seed round, led by TMT Investments.

There was also participation from Gaingels, Mana Ventures, Cabra VC, ICU Ventures, and a group of angel investors, including Wrike’s Andrew Filev.

The investment brings the company's total funding to $3.9 million.

It plans to use the new funds to integrate with more advertising platforms that have the highest potential for fast growing DTC brands, such as TikTok, Pinterest, and Twitter, before raising Series A cash later this year. 

Kogniz closes $10m funding round, launches Gun Detection module

Kogniz has announced a $10 million investment led by Ulu Ventures to help bring the company's technology product suite that predicts, detects, and resolves key safety and operational problems to commercial, industrial, school, and governmental organisations.

There was also participation by super{set} Venture Studio and its CEO and Co-Founder Tom Chavez, and The Indy Fund, K20 Fund, H. Barton Asset Management, among others.

Kogniz has raised $13.5 million in total to date.

Alongside the latest investment, it has unveiled a new Gun Detection module that uses computer vision and AI to identify firearms in real-time via a client's existing camera infrastructure.

Walmart takes stake in automation technology firm Symbotic

Walmart has taken a stake in Symbotic, amounting to 11.1% of the company’s total common stock and 4.3% of its voting power, according to a securities filing.   

The disclosure closely follows Walmart announcing that it will bring Symbotic’s automation technology to all 42 of its regional distribution centres over the next eight years, an expansion of a previous partnership.

Deliveroo teams with Criteo for new advertising platform

Deliveroo has announced the launch of a new advertising platform, Deliveroo Media and E-commerce.

The rapid delivery firm is working on this offering with Criteo who are supplying the advertising technology and media sales services. 

Brands will be able to advertise to Deliveroo customers with relevant offers across its app, on the company’s website and as part of social media, email and push notification campaigns.

For the first time, advertising is planned for Deliveroo’s order tracker page, with new formats to launch over the coming months, alongside sponsored search listings.

The venture’s network of delivery only ‘Editions’ kitchens and rapid grocery delivery ‘HOP’ stores are also part of the new advertising proposition.

H&M Group taps Google Cloud tech for CX and supply chain push

Google Cloud has announced a new partnership with H&M Group which will see the Swedish multinational leverage its data analytics capabilities and sustainable global infrastructure to enhance its customer experience and supply chain enablement.

The pair will collaborate to develop an enterprise data backbone including a core data platform, data product, and advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.

This will also include the establishment of a new data mesh to further make all types of data and events accessible from multiple sources including in-store, online, its brands ecosystem and suppliers.  

Five retail technology questions for Martin Schofield of Retail247

RTIH asks major players in the retail technology space for their thoughts on the sector, and throws in a random question to keep them on their toes. This time around, our five questions go to Martin Schofield, CEO at Retail247.

Omi raises €6 million in seed funding for 3D modelling tech

Omi, a French startup that specialises in SaaS software for modelling and rendering 3D photo and video for brands, has raised €6 million in seed funding.

The round was led by Dawn Capital, with participation from a range of angel investors including Founders Future’s Marc Ménasé who led Omi’s previous round, Zenly cofounder Alexis Bonillo, Deezer founder Daniel Marhely and Voodoo cofounder Laurent Ritter.

There was also participation from Pareto Holdings, Financière Saint James (Veepee.com’s co-founder family office), Motier Ventures (Galeries Lafayette family office) and Famille C Venture (Clarins family office).

Omi says that its photo-realistic 3D technology enables brands and marketers to “virtualise their products and create photos and videos of their products in minutes, with no skills and at low cost”.

The funding will be used to accelerate the development of its R&D, recruit new talent, and build an international presence.