“The future of online sales”: Bonfire Ventures backs retail technology firm Upp. in seed funding round
Upp., a London-based firm that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help retailers market and sell their products online, has raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by Bonfire Ventures.
Upp.AI, the company’s platform, analyses data to optimise ad spend, improve product discovery, and increase e-commerce sales.
The firm was founded by Ben White, who built and sold MessageLabs (acquired by Symantec in 2008 for $800 million), and Drew Smith, the lead platform architect of Upp.AI.
The latter is currently used by a number of retailers including Charles Tyrwhitt, OnBuy, Roman Originals and Nkuku. It is available in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
White says: “The scale and complexity of today’s online retail environment has extended beyond the capability of humans alone and needs the support of powerful AI and machine learning technology.”
“The Upp.AI platform enables retailers to excel in a competitive landscape, achieve better results around the clock and align their finance and marketing teams goals seamlessly.”
Over the next 12 months Upp. will use the investment to continue building its team, accelerate the growth of its sales and marketing function, expand geographically and launch new automation solutions for retailers.
Mark Mullen, Co-founder at Bonfire Ventures adds:“We believe that Upp. is the future of online sales. The company’s platform is incredibly powerful and has the potential to revolutionise the way retailers market, price and sell their products online.”
“The platform was conceived by a talented team who have run multi-hundred million dollar businesses in the past, so it possesses a lot of horsepower.”
Joe Irons, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at Charles Tyrwhitt, says: "Upp are a key partner to Charles Tyrwhitt across our global online marketing channels and specifically have helped us scale our marketing across Google Performance Max.”
“They have helped improve our brand visibility and unlock new product categories with a specific focus on reaching new customers."
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