Just getting started: RTIH presents 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 Bringly, absolute labs, and Covariant.
1. Bringly
Bringly has completed a €1.5 million funding round involving new backers Eyos Capital, the Polish SpeedUp Energy Innovation and existing investors Shamrock Ventures, Ponooc and various angels.
The Dutch startup, which lays claim to two previous (undisclosed) rounds, will use the cash to expand its sustainable online shipping platform and network of carriers in Europe, add to its team and develop its software and algorithms.
Its technology makes it possible for e-commerce players to split the entire delivery process from different stock locations on the basis of different carriers.
The firm’s algorithm monitors the available capacities and performance of connected carriers and couriers in real-time. It then provides insights into the associated CO2 reduction in both the check-out of the web store and weekly reports.
2. absolute labs
Wallet Relationship Management (WRM) platform specialist absolute labs has announced the close of a $8 million seed fundraising round including Aglaé Ventures, Alpha Praetorian Capital, The Luxury Fund, Near Foundation, MoonPay, Plassa Capital, Punja Global Ventures, Samsung Next, Sparkle Ventures (Animoca Brands), and W3i.
The Web3 CRM offering, which is used by the likes of LVMH, MoonPay, The Sandbox, and Mocaverse (Animoca Brands), is enabling brands to leverage wallet data on public blockchains to gain deep data insights, build actionable segments, and automate cross-channel campaigns including NFT air drops, and nurture social community engagement.
3. Covariant
Covariant has bagged an additional $75 million in Series C funds, bringing its total funding to $222 million.
Returning investors Radical Ventures and Index Ventures co-led the round, which also saw additional funding from previous backers Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Amplify Partners.
There was also participation from newbies Gates Frontier Holdings, AIX Ventures, and Northgate Capital.
“The leading companies have turned to AI robotics to automate their most manual operations in order to decrease labour costs, increase throughput, and control profitability,” says Peter Chen, Chief Executive Officer, Covariant.
“The past year for us has been incredible with 6x growth in 2022 – and we are just getting started.”
“This infusion of new capital allows us to scale even faster, ensuring more retailers can automate more parts of their fulfilment networks to remove manual bottlenecks, handle fluctuating demand, and better prepare for ever changing business needs.”
4. Whizz
Whizz, an e-bike subscription platform for last mile delivery drivers, has raised $3.4 million from Joint Journey, TMT Investments and a group of angel investors in a seed round of funding.
This brings its total fundraising to date to $4.5 million.
The cash will be used to fuel the company’s growth; upgrade the Whizz Automation Platform, its ERP system for business process automation; and set up new locations in New York equipped with lounge zones, bike maintenance and repair stations, and overnight storage facilities.
5. Ryft
Ryft, a PSD2 compliant payments system, has announced its receipt of a UK licence from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) following a £1.2 million seed round raise in August last year.
This will enable the firm to expand its in-house compliance team led by new Head of Compliance and Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO), Grant Campbell.
It will be able to facilitate more complex payments, enabling B2B digital and marketplace platforms to monetise payments across their technology as well as independently broker relationships with other organisations.
The Ryft solution processes payments and then automatically diverts funds to merchants and sub-merchants the next working day.
It’s pitched as Stripe Connect without the high fees and lengthy payout wait times. Ryft’s end-to-end solution handles everything from accepting online payments, verifying and onboarding merchants, to splitting up the payments however a business wants.
The idea for Ryft came from best friends and co-founders Sadra Hosseini and Alex Mackenzie’s first business Butlr, a mobile ordering marketplace app for pubs and bars.
They identified a gap in the market for the profitability of microtransactions and fast payouts and there Ryft was born.
Hosseini says: “We are both incredibly proud to have secured our FCA licence after a year and a half.”
“This furthers our ability to provide support to marketplaces and merchants in the industry. Ryft was created to handle everything so your business doesn’t have to.”
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