Electrifying pizza delivery for Americans: RTIH presents the retail technology week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail systems news? Then this is the article for you. Including Retail247, Trigo, AiFi, Cart.com, Nothing, Alipay+, Primark, AutoStore, Ocado Group, Amazon, and Domino’s Pizza.
€3.8 million…Vok Bikes, an Estonian startup producing electric cargo bikes for last mile deliveries, has closed a 3.8 million euro seed round, including Estonia’s SmartCap, Jaan Tallinn’s Metaplanet, Specialist VC, Sunly, a list of angel investors and a 300,000 euro grant from Enterprise Estonia.
£500,000…Retail technology consultancy and software developer, Retail247, has secured a £500,000 investment from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), provided by The FSE Group Debt Finance Fund and backed by the Recovery Loan Scheme.
The firm has developed a suite of proprietary cloud-based solutions for its customers, who include Reiss, Crew Clothing, AllSaints, and LK Bennett.
The funding will be used to expand its tech team and enable further product development to meet increased demand.
Martin Schofield, Retail247 CEO and Co-Founder, says: “As Origin and Quantum are successfully rolled out to more retailers, we are seeing a significant uptick in interest for our innovative solutions and funding is needed to support ongoing development activity and recruit new staff to grow the business.”
“To date, we have self-invested in the development of our technology. We have been successful not only with the development, but also in achieving market entry. Now we need to scale, and we are delighted that FSE is able to provide the MEIF loan to support this stage of our growth.”
1,100…Domino’s Pizza is laying claim to the largest electric pizza delivery fleet in the US.
It has announced that more than 1,100 custom branded 2023 Chevy Bolt electric vehicles will be on the ground and in use at select franchise and corporate stores by the end of the year.
“Back in November 2022, Domino’s announced that we’d have 800 EVs on the road by the end of 2023 and we’re excited to say that we’ve officially reached that number,” says Joe Jordan, Domino’s President of U.S. and global services.
“All 800 vehicles are on the road, delivering at various stores across the country. We are even more thrilled to announce that number is growing.”
“Our stores and franchisees have continued to express their enthusiasm and interest around EVs, and they’ve ordered an additional 300-plus cars to be on the road by the end of the year.”
1…Auchan Retail Poland has launched the first fully autonomous store within its Auchan Go concept.
Located in Warsaw, the cashier free location is open 24/7 and features an AI powered solution from Trigo.
Poland becomes the first market where the Auchan Go store is fully operational for shoppers, following tests of the frictionless concept in France.
$96 million…Nothing, a London-based consumer technology brand, has announced a $96 million fundraising round led by Highland Europe, with participation from existing investors GV (Google Ventures), EQT Ventures and C Capital, alongside supergroup Swedish House Mafia.
Founded in 2020, Nothing’s Phone (1) was showcased in Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2022 list for its innovative smartphone design.
In 2023, the product received the Red Dot Design Award, along with the rest of Nothing's current product portfolio, including the wireless audio devices Ear (2) and Ear (Stick).
The company is gearing up to launch Phone (2) on 11th July. This features a lower carbon footprint than its predecessor.
Nothing says that it wants to “bridge the gap between the company and its users – driving product innovation by delving deeper into consumer insights through its community feedback programmes”.
To further support this goal, it has held two community financing rounds and attracted over 8,000 private investors. Additionally, it has appointed a community member as a Board Observer.
$60 million and $1.2 billion…Cart.com, a US-based specialist in e-commerce software and services, has raised a $60 million Series C equity funding round at a valuation of $1.2 billion.
This is an increase in valuation of nearly 50% since the startup’s Series B funding in February 2022.
Cart.com has raised $440 million in total since being founded in November 2020.
The Series C includes participation from B. Riley Venture Capital, Kingfisher Investment Advisors, Snowflake Ventures, Prosperity7 Ventures, Legacy Knight, and other strategic corporate and financial investors.
The company will use the new investment to meet increased demand from enterprise and B2B clients, accelerate its international expansion, and expand product development across its software portfolio.
$13.8 million…DePoly has closed a $13.8 million seed funding round co-led by BASF Venture Capital and Wingman Ventures, and also involving the likes of Beiersdorf, Infinity Recycling, CIECH Ventures, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Angel Invest, and ACE & Company.
Plastics like polyethylene terephthalate (PET) can be found in many of our daily items, such as clothing, packaging, and outdoor equipment.
Unfortunately, the high costs and difficulty required for sorting, separating, and cleaning these complex plastic streams, coupled with a lack of globally scaled solution, mean that only so-called perfect (clean, simple composition without other materials mixed) plastics get recycled.
DePoly, which was founded in 2020, aims to tackle the waste plastic problem with its chemical recycling technology. Currently, it converts all PET plastics and polyester textiles - originally sourced from fossil fuels - back into their main raw chemical components.
Those components are then sold back to the industry to make new virgin quality plastic items.
$10 million…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.
54%…The store is now the channel where consumers are most likely to make impulse purchases, according to research from ADvendio.
The company surveyed over 1,000 UK shoppers and found that 54% are most likely to impulse buy in-store, compared to 41% who make unplanned purchases when shopping online and 10% who bought on impulse on social media platforms.
$33 million…Utu, a technology company focusing on the tax free shopping space, has raised a $33 million Series B from investors including SC Ventures. It has also bought CardsPal, a Singapore-based FinTech that offers deals and promotions nearby to users.
2,400…Ant Group has announced the expansion of Alipay+ coverage to all 2,400+ 7-Eleven stores in Malaysia, enabled by Razer Merchant Services.
Users of AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR), GCash (Philippines), Kakao Pay (South Korea) and TrueMoney (Thailand), can now pay in 7-Eleven using their home mobile wallets.
Alipay, also an Alipay+ partner mobile wallet, has been accepted by Malaysian merchants since 2016.
Four, three and 425…Primark boosted its international expansion plans last week as it opened four new stores in three days, bringing the total number to 425 globally.
In a LinkedIn post, the retailer said: “Our new stores, across Europe and the US, and an extended store in the UK, represent a total investment of over €50 million and an additional 136,000 sq. ft of retail space.”
“Earlier this week we opened our second store in Romania in the city of Bucharest. Now we open our new relocated store in Dundrum Town Centre in our hometown of Dublin, our first store in Lanzarote, Spain and a store in Long Island, New York.”
“And it’s not a wrap yet: we will also open our newly extended store in Liverpool, UK.”
Nine…Amazon has shuttered a five year old Amazon Go convenience store in downtown Seattle, three months after it announced that eight of its automated checkout locations (two each in Seattle and New York City and four in San Francisco) were closing across the US.
“We’ve closed our 5th and Marion Seattle Amazon Go location, and are working closely with employees to find new opportunities within Amazon, including at other nearby stores,” an Amazon spokesperson said.
“We continue operating more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the US, and look forward to opening more in the future.”
The spokesperson didn’t give reasons for the closure, but it should be noted that urban stores reliant on office workers have struggled amidst the rise of remote working in a post-Covid world.
The focus of late has been on larger suburban locations that feature a made to order kitchen.
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