Fund out why the refunds space is ripe for disruption: RTIH rustles up the retail technology week in numbers

Do you like numbers? Do you like retail systems news? Then this is the article for you. Including Recharge, Reshop, The Very Group, Daash Intelligence, Marks & Spencer, Pipe17, Sensei, Pandion, and Raspberry AI.

£38 million...Recharge, a European specialist in online prepaid payments, has secured a £38 million facility with ABN AMRO. It says that the funding will enable the company to “drive consolidation across markets, open new segments and overall strengthen its position in the prepaid payments industry”.

The £38 million facility is part of a broader strategy to leverage strategic acquisitions as a growth driver.

Combined with Recharge’s cash reserves, and following previous funding rounds, it lays claim to a substantial war chest for identifying and integrating high potential businesses in key markets. The company aims to close two to three deals in 2025.

Bas Janssen, senior banker Digital and Consumer clients, ABN AMRO, says: “We are proud to support Recharge as they continue to scale and innovate in the prepaid payments sector. ABN AMRO is on a trajectory to become the preferred tech bank in the Netherlands and North West Europe.”

“This collaboration reflects our appetite to support digital transformation - one of our three strategic pillars. We see great promise in Recharge’s growth trajectory as they broaden their reach within the global prepaid payments space.”

$180 million...Synthesia, an enterprise AI powered video communications platform, has closed a $180 million Series D funding round. This was led by NEA, with participation from existing investors including GV, MMC Ventures and FirstMark, and new backers including WiL (World Innovation Lab), Atlassian Ventures, and PSP Growth.

This brings Synthesia’s total capital raised to over $330 million, valuing the company at $2.1 billion.

The cash will support product development and talent growth, and drive the expansion of its AI powered video platform to meet the evolving needs of enterprises in several markets, including Japan, Australia, Europe and North America.

"This new investment will help us develop a new generation of AI powered video experiences that are interactive, real-time, and personalised, offering possibilities we could have only imagined when we founded the company in 2017,”  says Victor Riparbelli, CEO and Co-founder at Synthesia.

“I’m excited to bring these experiences to our over 60,000 customers, which range from the world’s largest brands to thousands of small businesses that use Synthesia to communicate internally and externally with unmatched engagement and efficiency.”

$17 million...Reshop, a startup that focuses on the refund process for both consumers and retailers, has announced Anthony Eisen as its CEO, as well as a $17 million fundraise. 

Eisen most recently served as Co-Founder and Co-CEO at FinTech firm Afterpay, which he launched alongside Nick Molnar in 2014 and listed on the ASX in May 2016.

The $17 million fundraise, meanwhile, features investments from Matrix Partners, Sound Ventures (a venture capital firm co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary), Woodson Capital, and Touch Ventures. As Reshop continues to expand its network of partner retailers (which currently includes Alo Yoga, Steve Madden, Dolce Vita, and Cara Cara), the cash will be used to accelerate go-to-market and scale. 

"With Afterpay, our mission has always been to power an economy in which everyone wins, and that holds true with Reshop as well," says Eisen.

"The refunds space is ripe for disruption and in need of a solution that benefits both retailers and consumers, which is what we're providing with Reshop. I'm proud of the progress the team has already made since launching earlier this year and am excited to help shape the next chapter in their  journey."

70%...A British Retail Consortium survey of CFOs (Chief Financial Officers) at 52 UK retailers reveals significant concern about trading conditions over the next 12 months.

Sentiment languished at -57 with 70% of respondents “pessimistic” or “very pessimistic” about trading conditions over the coming 12 months, while just 13% said they were “optimistic” or very “optimistic” (17% were neither optimistic nor pessimistic).

The biggest concerns, all appearing in over 60% of CFO’s “top three concerns for their business” were falling demand for goods and services, inflation for goods and services, and the increasing tax and regulatory burden.

When asked how they would be responding to the increases in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) (from April 2025), two-thirds stated they would raise prices (67%), while around half said they would be reducing ‘number of hours/overtime’ (56%), ‘head office headcount’ (52%), and ‘stores headcount’ (46%). Almost one third said the increased costs would lead to further automation (31%).

The impact of the budget on wider business investment was also clear, with 46% of CFOs saying they would ‘reduce capital expenditure’ and 25% stating they would ‘delay new store openings.’ 44% of respondents expected reduced profits, which will further limit the capacity for investment.

$5.5 million...Daash Intelligence, an AI powered predictive commerce intelligence platform for retail brands, has secured $5.5 million in a second seed funding round, bringing its total funding to date to $8.25 million.

New investor Bullpen Capital led the round, with participation from GFT Ventures as well as from returning backers Silicon Road Ventures and Red Bike Capital.

Daash will use the cash to scale its engineering and go to market teams and accelerate product development to meet demand for timely, actionable data insights that enable beauty brands of all sizes to spot and leverage white space market opportunities.

“Beauty is a fiercely competitive retail category and beauty and personal care brands need affordable data insights that help them understand market trends as they are occurring, not weeks or months later,” says Philip Smolin, Co-founder and CEO at Daash Intelligence.

“We’re extremely pleased to partner with this prestigious group of investors to provide beauty brands with a powerful early indication of where their market opportunities lie, so they can act quickly to take advantage of emerging trends and maximise their sales.”

6.9 million, 218,000, and 205,000...The Very Group, a digital retailer chaired by former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, has released its Christmas and Black Friday period trading results for the seven weeks to 27th December 2024.

Sales at core brand Very rose 2.3% year-on-year, with overall group retail sales up 0.5%. Excluding the impact of Nike sales, Very UK sales rose by 4.5%, and group sales grew by 2.8%.

6.9 million items were processed at Skygate, the group’s automated fulfilment centre. 218,000 items were processed on 29th November, the busiest day of its peak period, and beating last year’s busiest day of 205,000 items. 

The fastest order during the peak period was processed and despatched in 16 minutes. The Very Group says it maintained its next day delivery service throughout the peak period, with a cut-off of 7pm on 23rd December for delivery before Christmas.

85...Marks & Spencer has announced the introduction of 85 zero or lower emission vehicles to its supply chain logistics fleet. As part of its Plan A roadmap to Net Zero by 2040, the retailer has committed to move to low carbon logistics, increased use of new technologies and cleaner fuels.

Five zero emission battery electric HGVs will operate between M&S’ Clothing & Home distribution centre in Welham Green, and 30 stores across London and the South East, including Oxford Street and Bluewater. The 42-tonne battery electric Renault trucks will directly replace equivalent diesel trucks.

The vehicles are delivered under the eFREIGHT 2030 project, part of the UK government’s zero emission HGV and infrastructure demonstrator programme (ZEHID) which aims to decarbonise road freight transport by accelerating the uptake of zero emissions heavy goods vehicles and their charging infrastructure.  

As one of the founding members of the eFREIGHT 2030 project, M&S will gain insight into the performance of battery electric HGVs to demonstrate how they can replace conventional HGVs, which will inform future planning decisions while the retailer continues to implement cleaner burn fuels and lower emission vehicles. 

From September, it also started taking delivery of 30 new vehicles that run on compressed natural gas for its Clothing & Home business, the first retailer to introduce 6x2 CNGs in the UK. This follows a long-term collaborative trial with IVECO - the first manufacturer to offer a 6x2 compressed natural gas vehicle - testing the vehicle’s reliability, fuel economy and green credentials.

It also recently introduced 50 4x2 compressed natural gas vehicles to its Food logistics business Gist as part of its food supply chain transformation. The compressed natural gas lorry cabs are powered by biomethane, a sustainable renewable fuel derived from waste products including food, animal manure and waste water, which reduces CO2 emissions by up to 85% versus a diesel engine. 

Once these 85 vehicles are in operation, almost 10% of M&S’ total transport fleet will be powered by zero or lower-emission solutions.

$24 million...Raspberry AI, a generative AI platform for fashion creatives working with Under Armour, MCM Worldwide, Gruppo Teddy and Li & Fung, has secured $24 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

Existing investors Greycroft, Correlation Ventures and MVP Ventures also participated in the round, along with angel investors including Gokul Rajaram and Ken Pilot.

Raspberry AI will use the cash to accelerate its product development and add engineering, sales and marketing talent to its team.

The company provides an AI image generation platform that helps retail brands in understanding consumer demand and creating highly sought after designs and marketing assets in minutes. The platform enables brands to create full mood boards, lifestyle photography, product photography and technical drawings through text prompts.

1,676, 1,200, 2,000, 21, and 10,000...Sensei has partnered with MC Sonae on the opening of a new Continente Bom Dia location, in Leiria, Portugal, pitched as the world’s largest autonomous supermarket.

In a LinkedIn post, Sensei said: "This revolutionary achievement is a record breaker on so many levels, setting a new benchmark for the future of retail: 1.676 cameras; 1,200 sq m2; 2,000 scales; 21 servers; 10.000 SKU’s."

"With democratic entry (no app or card tapping needed), assisted sales (fresh fish counter), simplified real-time basket checkout, discrepancy detection (a first!), and many more, bringing the shopping journey to a whole new level."

It concluded: "We changed everything, challenging the retail status quo, without changing anything – except for the groundbreaking checkout process, it’s just a really simple, smooth and seamless shopping experience."

$15.5 million...Pipe17, a provider of AI powered composable order operations, has announced a $15.5 million funding round. It also recently hired its first Chief Operating Officer, Kelly Goetsch, who joins from commercetools.

Goetsch also co-founded and ran the MACH Alliance, an industry consortium of 100+ vendors advocating for composable MACH (Microservices, APIs, Cloud, and Headless) technologies.

“Joining Pipe17 feels like history repeating itself. When I joined commercetools, I saw a massive market opportunity to redefine how businesses power ecommerce via headless and composable commerce infrastructure – and we did exactly that,” says Goetsch.

“Now, with Pipe17, I see the same potential - this time in pioneering the future of composable order operations. This platform is fast, scalable, and uniquely designed to unify systems and channels, enabling businesses to stay competitive and deliver exceptional customer experiences.”

Pipe17 powers the operations of brands such as Allbirds, Made In Cookware, Orthofeet and MaryRuth Organics, and logistics providers like Ryder, UPS and FedEx.

The funding round was led by LFX Venture Partners, with participation from current investors GLP and others, including convertible note funding.

$41 million and $200 million...Just ten months ago, Pandion, which was started in 2020 by former Amazon and Walmart executive Scott Ruffin, raised $41 million, with sales forecasted north of $200 million. But the parcel network designed for e-commerce residential delivery has now closed abruptly, after talks with potential acquirers and investors proved unsuccessful. Employees will be paid through to 15th January without severance.

In a LinkedIn post, Ruffin, the founder and former leader of Amazon Air., said: “This decision is profoundly personal for me. Five years ago, Pandion began as nothing more than an idea. Since then, we’ve achieved remarkable milestones. We generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue, built innovative technology from the ground up, and developed concepts and technology that advanced the operations industry, which will endure long after our journey ends.”

He added: “From delivering over 100,000 packages a day to developing world class technology, I’m immensely proud of everything we accomplished. While the outcome is not what we hoped for, I remain grateful for the incredible work and dedication that made these achievements possible.”

1...RTIH, organiser of the industry leading RTIH Innovation Awards, proudly brings you the first edition of the RTIH AI in Retail Awards, which is now open for entries. 

As we witness a digital transformation revolution across all channels, AI tools are reshaping the omnichannel game, from personalising customer experiences to optimising inventory, uncovering insights into consumer behaviour, and enhancing the human element of retailers' businesses.

As AI sees increasing adoption in the retail space, our newly launched awards celebrate global technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world and the resulting benefits for retailers, shoppers and employees.

Our 2025 winners will be those companies who not only recognise the potential of AI, but also make it usable in everyday work - resulting in more efficiency and innovation in all areas.

Winners will be announced at an evening event at The Barbican in Central London on Thursday, 3rd July. This will kick off with a drinks reception in the stunning Conservatory, followed by a three course meal, and awards ceremony in the Garden Room.