Including Swan, Voxel, and Penny Black: five retail technology funding rounds you need to know about
RTIH rounds up five retail systems ventures who have recently secured significant investments in their businesses, including an embedded banking specialist, an omnichannel inventory management system, accounting, and PoS platform, and a startup using marketing techniques to make drab e-commerce packages more rewarding and personalised.
1. Voxel
Voxel has announced a $12 million funding round led by Rite-Hite with participation from existing investors Eclipse Ventures and World Innovation Lab.
This takes total funds raised to $30 million since 2020.
Voxel integrates computer vision technology into existing security cameras to identify hazards, risky behaviours, and operational inefficiencies across a range of workplaces.
Once potential risks, such as near miss vehicle collisions, blocked exits, improper ergonomics, or spills, are identified, a real-time alert is sent to on-site personnel who can take immediate action, and Voxel's analytics help sites identify operational inefficiencies and design policies to prevent future issues.
In order to protect workers’ privacy, no facial recognition or identification of individuals is permitted in Voxel’s systems.
2. Rewaa
Rewaa, a Saudi-based omnichannel inventory management system, accounting, and PoS platform for the retail industry, has raised $27 million in Series A funding round led by Wa’ed Ventures, a VC fund wholly owned by Aramco.
STC’s Corporate Innovation Fund (CIF) also participated, alongside Silicon Valley’s Graphene Ventures, Sadu Capital, Vision Ventures, Khwarizmi Ventures, RZM Investment, Derayah VC, and Abdulrahman Sulaiman Al Rajhi & Sons Investment Company.
“This investment propels us toward our vision of becoming the optimal tech partner for SMBs in the retail sector. By contributing to the industry's digital transformation, we aim to make an impact on retail merchants, enabling them to increase efficiency,” says Mohammed Alqasir, Co-Founder and CEO at Rewaa.
3. Eat Just
Eat Just., a company that applies science and technology to create healthier, more sustainable foods, has closed a new round of financing led by VegInvest/Ahimsa Foundation.
The funding, the amount of which has not been disclosed, will enable the firm to improve the quality and profitability of its products.
“We founded this company to take the animal out of the equation, and today, we’re proud to continue this vital work with an investor who has shown an unwavering commitment to this ideal. Our work is not easy and not certain, but it's what is required,” says Eat Just Co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick.
“Eat Just and its leadership in the industry play a critical part of building a kinder, safer food system. We're proud of this investment and the continued partnership to make products that consumers love without causing the harm inherent in animal agriculture,” says Shaleen Shah, President, Ahimsa Foundation.
4. Penny Black
Penny Black, a UK tech startup using marketing techniques to make drab e-commerce packages more rewarding and personalised, has received an additional £1.5 million in seed funding from AGFA and ninepointfive.
This builds on an initial investment of £1.3 million in October 2022, bringing the total raised to date to £2.8 million.
Both investment funds were triggered by partnerships and wins across the UK and Europe, including sustainable toothbrush retailer SURI, gin brand Warner’s Distillery and health supplements retailer Zooki.
Retailers and third-party logistics centres (3PLs) have been attracted to the technology to help differentiate themselves from competitors.
5. Swan
Swan, an embedded banking startup whose clients include Carrefour, has announced a $40 million Series B funding round.
Lakestar led the round with Swan’s existing investors also stumping up more cash. Accel led Swan’s Series A in 2021. Creandum and Bpifrance invested at the seed stage and Swan was originally part of the eFounders startup studio.
In a nutshell, any company can create payment accounts and add financial products to their existing services using Swan. It partners with SaaS companies, marketplaces and FinTech startups so that its customers can offer white labelled banking features.
“I’ve been in payments and banking for 15 years, and I always felt like the industry was not well designed. It was unnecessarily complex. Long, convoluted sales processes, insane amounts of paperwork. Expensive. Slow,” says founder Nicolas Benady.
“Since then, we’ve seen the SaaS revolution, we’ve seen iPhones. People can make complex things easy, with great design, with thoughtfulness. That’s what Swan is all about.”
He adds: “We care about great product design in the payments and banking space and this is what motivates me every day. With my co-founders Nicolas Saison and Mathieu Breton, we launched Swan to make it genuinely easy for European entrepreneurs to add banking features to their core product.”
“We built BaaS, SaaS style. And we rethought every part of the process, from discovery to testing, to integration and launch. Everything should be super easy, fast, and reliable.”
Continue reading…