Featuring Eagle Eye, Cartken, and Distil.ai: 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 Morrisons, Ocado Solutions, GoWit, Marks and Spencer, and Refined Networks.
£1.1 million…Distil.ai, a customer data platform for e-commerce businesses, has raised £1.1 million in a funding round led by Mercia Ventures and supported by angel investors.
The cash will enable the Exeter-based company to enhance its platform and expand its sales and marketing team to help scale the business.
The startup has raised £2 million in total funding to date.
It can also make informed recommendations on discounting strategies and promotions.
5…Eagle Eye has secured a five-year contract with Morrisons involving the UK grocery giant’s loyalty and promotional offering.
The retailer will tap Eagle Eye's AIR platform for its loyalty programme, which allows customers to benefit from exclusive prices and earn points on selected products in-store, online and on fuel.
Its new offering aims to create more ways of engaging with customers, and help the supermarket scale the number of broadcast and targeted offers available.
The scheme will be rolled out to all 499 stores nationwide and is expected to go live later in 2023.
$1 million…GoWit, a startup focused on omnichannel retail media advertising solutions, has secured an $1 million investment in its first financing round.
Leading this are Esas Ventures, Alarko Ventures, APY Ventures and Mindvest GSYF (Venture Capital Investment Fund).
Following on from the launch of its latest SaaS product GoWit RMA (Retail Media Ads), the cash will allow the company to begin expanding globally, invest in product development and grow its team.
10…Parcel delivery company DPD has announced plans to expand autonomous robot deliveries to ten UK towns and cities in the next 12 months, following a trial in Milton Keynes, starting with Raunds in Northamptonshire.
This extends the firm’s relationship with AI powered robotics and last mile delivery specialist, Cartken and follows work that identified up to 30 UK depot locations which could potentially deploy robots.
The former first introduced the Cartken robots in Milton Keynes in July 2022 and they have since travelled almost 500 miles and performed over 2,500 trips delivering parcels to DPD customers.
Based at DPD's depot at Warth Park on the western edge of Raunds, the robots will deliver to nearby residential areas within a mile of the depot, via the existing network of footpaths.
In Raunds, they will have three separate parcel compartments, instead of just one in the original trial, and an extended battery life of up to 12 hours.
1…MACH Alliance, a group of tech companies focused on advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems, has announced PayPal as the first company to join its new Supporter membership category.
The move represents the expansion of MACH Alliance into the FinTech sector.
The Supporter membership category is for companies that sit outside of the requirements for MACH certification but who have a strong association with MACH technology and the ecosystem.
Those could include large technology companies, financial services organisations, government bodies, private foundations, academic institutions and private equity or venture capital firms.
£2.5 million…UK-based Refined Networks, a technology platform for cross-border digital commerce, has announced the completion of a £2.5 million Series A round backed by Souter Investments, in conjunction with the Rueff family and existing seed round investors, including former TFG London CEO, Ben Barnett, and JJill Inc Chair, Michael Rahamim.
Brands (including Lindex, Marc O’Polo, IKKS Paris, By Malina, Saint Tropez and Petit Bateau) work with Refined Networks to drive their cross-border online sales through partners including John Lewis, Next, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.
The funding round will enable the firm to launch internationally in A/W23, taking its existing brand portfolio and a curated selection of UK brands into platforms and marketplaces across Europe, North America and the Middle East.
1…Ocado Group has appointed Gregor Ulitzka as its first President, Europe for Ocado Solutions.
In this role he will lead the firm’s operations across the region, growing relationships with current partners and bringing new retailers to the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP).
Ulitzka joins Ocado from Amazon, where he worked for over 10 years, most recently as Director of Supply Chain and Inventory Management for Europe.
In that role, he was responsible for leading global supply chain, product management and business development teams. Previously he spent 13 years at the German grocer Metro in European management roles.
€1 billion…Austrian technology refurbishment specialist, Refurbed, says it has reached a billion euro in sales across all of its seven markets, including Austria, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Denmark and The Netherlands.
The company was established in 2017 by its three co-founders, Peter Windischhofer, Kilian Kaminski and Jürgen Riedl in Vienna, and now employs more than 290 people.
Its platform offers fully refurbished electronic devices, said to be up to 40% cheaper than new, with at least 12 months warranty.
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