RTIH rustles up five retail technology funding rounds you absolutely need to know about
RTIH rounds up the retail systems ventures who have recently wrapped notable funding rounds, including AssetFloow, BlackCurve, and Oja.
1. BlackCurve
BlackCurve has secured £750,000 in new funding from investors including Nauta Capital and ACF Investors, bringing its total raised to £3.7 million.
Founded in 2017, BlackCurve’s technology enables retailers to evaluate and optimise their product pricing decisions.
They can tap its platform to set rules that automatically change prices in reaction to competitor behaviour, similar to the systems used by the likes of Amazon.
2. Oja
Oja, pitched as the UK’s first ethnic digital supermarket focused on African and Caribbean goods, has raised a pre-seed extension led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Premier League and England football player Raheem Sterling.
Founded in 2020, Oja, which is Yoruba, a Nigerian language, for market, ships orders from its own warehouses and dark stores to homes across London, and has also recently launched its service in Birmingham.
The funding will be used to further its expansion into new cultures and regions, as well as its B2B offering.
In addition to becoming an angel investor, Sterling will be the firm’s first brand ambassador.
3. Neubility
Neubility, a South Korea-based autonomous robot services company, has received three billion won in funding from Samsung Venture Investment.
That takes it total funding to date to approximately 30 billion won.
Neubility was selected by C-Lab Outside, Samsung Electronics’ startup acceleration programme, in 2021.
It has since expanded into overseas markets, such as Japan, Europe, and the United States, and is building a production base in Southeast Asia.
It says that it is “rapidly increasing its service competitiveness by accumulating data on urban driving experience from the CES 2023 Innovation Award winning self-driving robot, Neubie, and the Robot as a Service (RaaS) platform, Neubiego”.
Neubility CEO Sangmin Lee comments: "We are honoured and pleased to attract an investment from Samsung Venture Investment. We will strive to boost our production and expand our services."
4. DressX
DressX has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round.
The money will be used for the fashion retail firm to improve its app and NFT marketplace, ensure interoperability of its digital pieces and partner with other virtual platforms, social media and gaming,
The round was led by Greenfield, with participation from Slow Ventures, Warner Music, The Artemis Fund, Red Dao and other investors.
“As we spend more and more time in virtual environments, this will equally translate beyond the physical sphere and NFTs and blockchain technology will enable true digital ownership to elevate one’s identity,” says Greenfield founding partner Jascha Samadi.
“We are very excited to see how this space will evolve over the next five to ten years and we believe DressX will be at the forefront of shaping and driving change."
5. AssetFloow
AssetFloow has closed a €1.5 million investment round.
The startup has developed artificial intelligence technology capable of describing consumer behaviour inside a store without the need for cameras or sensors.
With the aforementioned investment from GED Ventures, it aims to triple its R&D team in Portugal, accelerate expansion in Europe and South America, and consolidate its position in the behavioural analytics market.
This is its first equity round (in 2021, it received a €100K SAFE note).
Continue reading…