This month we’ve mostly been talking about influencers: RTIH’s biggest retail technology articles in April
These are the RTIH retail systems articles that caught your fancy during April, including Wolt, Amazon, Getir, Pipedream, Gather AI, Rohlik Group, and the 2024 RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List.
The 2024 RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List goes live, sponsored by 3D Cloud by Marxent
The latest edition of the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List has arrived, sponsored by 3D Cloud by Marxent. Here are the people who made a splash in 2023 and are set for a barnstorming 2024.
RTIH has scoured the retail technology world to find the most influential figures for this comprehensive list of people and trends that shape the industry and help drive it forward.
We’re living in unprecedented times.
The Covid-19 outbreak and cost-of-living crisis have driven a seismic change in shopping habits.
We are seeing retailers taking innovative technologies like AR, AI, and spatial computing, and finding ways to use them to make customer experiences more exciting and dynamic.
Which is where the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List comes in, presented, we should stress, in no particular order.
Such disruption requires new ways of problem solving and thought leaders who can both evangelise and execute on the likes of digital transformation and omnichannel success.
We hope you enjoy reading through it and, as always, if you would like to give feedback or believe that there are some glaring omissions, please feel free to get in touch via the form at the end of this article.
Many thanks to 3D Cloud by Marxent, which provides 3D product visualisation software trusted by top furniture and DIY retailers, for sponsoring it.
Download the list in pdf format here.
Or read via Issuu here.
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Rohlik Group invests in automation technologies as AutoStore powered warehouse goes live in Berlin
European e-commerce grocery delivery firm Rohlik Group has gone live with Knuspr.de in Berlin, Germany, powered by an automated warehouse and AutoStore technology.
This is part of its plan to reach €10 billion in revenue by 2030 and to expand into 15 additional German cities.
The service reaches across the entire Berlin area, extending to neighbouring Potsdam and parts of Brandenburg, and operates from a Schönefeld distribution centre.
"In my experience in the online grocery industry, it is only a true leader who can transition a brand, automate a warehouse and launch with a large SKU range in four months,” says Vineta Bajaj, Group CFO at Rohlik Group, and formerly of Ocado Group.
“I'm extremely proud of what Rohlik Group is doing as a business, and excited about our future.”
Getir faces reality. Here’s why exiting Europe, US and retreating back to home country of Turkey is a smart move
Getir is withdrawing from the US, UK, Germany and the Netherlands.
According to a Sky News report, thousands of jobs will be put at risk, including approximately 1,500 in the UK. The move could involve a sale of its assets or an insolvency procedure, insiders said.
It would leave Getir with operations in Turkey only.
It’s a good move, according to Brittain Ladd, as supply chain consultant and former Amazon executive.
Inventory monitoring startup Gather AI bags $17 million in funding to transform supply chain traceability
Gather AI, a provider of computer vision and AI powered warehouse inventory monitoring solutions, has announced a $17 million Series A-1 round led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Tribeca Venture Partners, Dundee Venture Capital, Expa, and Bling Capital.
This provides a total of $34 million raised to date. The cash will be invested in scaling operations.
Gather AI was founded in 2017 by Sankalp Arora, Daniel Maturana and Geetesh Dubey, after launching from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute.
It automates inventory visibility challenges through drones across third-party logistics, manufacturing, and retail facilities, laying claim to much richer data than warehouses can currently obtain with barcodes.
Customers include NFI, GEODIS, DSV, Barrett Distribution, and DPI Specialty Foods (KeHE).
Amazon pulling Just Walk Out checkout-free tech from Fresh stores shows how iterative innovation evolves
To label Amazon’s Just Walk Out frictionless shopping technology initiative a failure is naive at best and at worst a complete misunderstanding of tech creativity. So says Brand L. Elverston, Founder/Principal at Elverston Consulting.
Checkout-free store startups crush stadiums and micro markets, struggle with convenience and groceries
And so is Frank Beard, Head of Marketing at Rovertown, who in a recent post on X (formerly known as Twitter) gave the thumbs up to those companies betting on stadiums and micro markets.
Although he added: “Convenience? Not buying the tech. Grocery? Small pilots, no scale, challenging format.”
Finnish food delivery and technology company Wolt goes live with Wolt Ads service following beta period
Wolt has announced the launch of its own advertising service, Wolt Ads.
Following a beta period, the company is now looking to scale this across its 27 markets.
“We’re delighted to be able to introduce Wolt Ads to more partners. Over the past months, we’ve seen our partners record significant growth in their sales and return on advertising spend,” says Catalina Salazar, Global Head at Wolt Ads.
“While it’s still very early for us in this area, the initial results and feedback from our partners are extremely encouraging and give us confidence that we’re on the right track.”
Wolt, which was acquired by DoorDash in 2022, currently has over 36 million registered users across 27 markets and over 500 cities.
Underground logistics startup Pipedream bags $13 million in seed funding round led by Starship Ventures
Pipedream has announced a $13 million seed raise led by Starship Ventures as it continues to scale underground logistics for its customers.
There was also participation from Cortado Ventures, Myelin Ventures and other angels and firms.
The capital will be used to speed up delivery of Instant Pickup to its customers and to begin construction on the first large scale middle mile network in a city.
In an online post, Garrett McCurrach, CEO at Pipedream, said: “Our long-term goal is to make hyperlogistics a reality by the end of this decade. Hyperlogistics is achieved when people in a city can receive things in under ten minutes for less than a dollar and send back that item just as easily as it was received.”
“To do this, we need to make moving goods around a city and through buildings, as easy and painless as it is to move water.”
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