Channel3 bags funding in round led by Matrix for universal, real-time database for AI driven shopping
Channel3 has announced a $6 million seed round led by Matrix, with participation from Ludlow Ventures, Paul Graham, Sri Batchu (former CMO of TheRealReal) and Matteo Franeschetti (founder of EightSleep).
“AI driven shopping is only as powerful as the data it can act on,” says Alexander Schiff, Co-founder and CEOat Channel3. “Developers building agentic commerce applications often get stuck on product data because collecting and maintaining it is too difficult and expensive. We handle the infrastructure layer, so developers can focus on building the best user experience.”
George Lawrence, Co-founder and CTO, comments: “Product data has always been a problem that no one has fully solved. Now, with multimodal AI models smart enough to understand products and inexpensive enough to operate at scale, Channel3 is making product data reliable, structured and actionable. This enables developers to build AI shopping experiences that are frictionless, intelligent and scalable.”
“The team at Channel3 is tackling a generational opportunity that we firmly believe will become the foundational layer for the agentic commerce era,” says Kojo Osei, Partner at Matrix. ”We’re proud to partner with this team as they lead the charge in a massive, emerging market.”
Schiff and Lawrence met at Duke University, where they co-founded their first startup together. Schiff led AI projects at Studio.comafter working at Microsoft, and Lawrence, a former Palantir engineer, co-founded Channel3.
RTIH AI in Retail Awards
RTIH proudly presents the first edition of its AI in Retail Awards, sponsored by 3D Cloud and EdTech Innovation Hub.
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.
With 2025 set to be the year when AI and especially gen AI shake off the ‘heavily hyped’ tag and become embedded in retail business processes, 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, 29th January. 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.
Continue reading…