Including tvScientific and Amplience: eight retail technology funding rounds you need to know about

RTIH rounds up eight retail systems ventures who have recently secured significant investments in their businesses, including companies specialising in customer engagement platforms for furniture and appliance retailers, in-store audio and retail media, and resale technology.

1. Amplience

AshGrove Capital reports the completion of a £32 million senior secured investment in Amplience, a UK headquartered provider of headless content management solutions.

Amplience helps e-commerce brands and retailers across EMEA and North America to create, manage, and distribute digital content across multiple channels, including websites, email, apps, and social media.

AshGrove’s financing solution gives additional capacity from the company’s previous facility, providing it with the additional runway and flexibility to continue investing in growth, and follows on from Farview Equity Partners’ investment in the company in 2022, which saw them join existing backer, Octopus Ventures.

Bart Cloyd, Co-CEO and CFO at Amplience, comments: "This funding will help support our growth and fuel further investment in our platform, product roadmap, and most importantly, in delivering enhanced value to our customers. By strengthening our ability to meet their evolving needs, we aim to deepen our partnerships and support their success."

2. PACKAGE.AI

PACKAGE.AI has raised $14 million in Series A funding, led by Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE).

The company has developed a customer engagement platform for furniture and appliance retailers.

Powered by conversational AI, workflow automation and last mile intelligence, Package.ai is used by the likes of Ashley Furniture, DSG, Big Sandy Superstore, Don’s Appliances and Spencers TV & Appliance.

In a LinkedIn post, Ziv Fass, Co-founder and CEO, said: "When we founded PACKAGE.AI eight years ago, I envisioned a world where AI empowers retailers and service providers to deliver magical customer experiences and super efficient last-mile operations. Seeing this vision come to life is deeply rewarding."

"This investment milestone reflects the trust and support of our amazing customers, employees, and partners. All the credit goes to our amazing team whose talent, passion and customer obsession are the keys to our success. Special thank you to the super talented Yoav Sadeh, my partner in crime. What a way to start 2025! Big things are on the horizon - stay tuned."

3. Qsic

In-store audio platform, Qsic, has closed a $25 million Series B funding round led by Hedosophia.

Powering in-store audio and retail media for retailers and QSRs like 7-Eleven, Coles Express and McDonald's, the company currently reaches more than 100 million shoppers at the point of purchase monthly, with more than 70,000 speakers set to deploy across North America over the next year.

The funds will be used to support the expansion of its AI powered in-store audio platform into new retail locations, accelerate product development and scale its sales team. 

“Retailers that have deployed our tech are seeing sales lifts average up to 14%, and we’ve barely scratched the surface with our technology capabilities,” says Matt Elsley, Co-founder and CEO at Qsic.

“The demand for our solution is strong. Now, we’re positioned to accelerate product development to enhance our tech capabilities and put new resources in place to grow our network to drive even greater, measurable outcomes for our retail partners and brands globally.” 

4. Zelt

Zelt reports a $6 million funding round led by Nauta, with participation from Venrex and Episode 1.

The company enables organisations to manage their whole workforce across the employee lifecycle in a single system, enabling them to simplify and automate people processes across HR, finance and IT functions.

The cash will be used to expand its product set to include more areas of operations, expand to new geographies and add new and improved features to support customers.

Zelt was founded in 2020 by Chris Priebe, a former VC and PE investor with experience in HR rech, and Polina Vorms, former product lead at Talkwaker and GfK.

The platform is used by over 150 customers including Shakespeare’s Globe, Club L and Mumsnet. Through its core offering, companies can manage diverse areas of people ops such as payroll, expenses, device security, goal tracking and holiday bookings.

5. Shopblocks

Shopblocks, a UK-based specialist in digital commerce, has raised £2 million from NPIF II – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II), Mercia’s EIS funds, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and private investors.

This comes as Shopblocks rebrands to Symphony Commerce and launches a range of new features and functionality as it hones in on the global business to business (B2B) enterprise market.

Symphony’s platform allows wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers to create tailored e-commerce sites, customer portals and product catalogues. It aims to fill a gap in the market for a platform that can handle the scale and intricacies of B2B operations, such as managing complex customer pricing strategies, tailored discounts and personalised experiences across extensive customer bases. It integrates with leading ERP, finance and marketing software.

Founded in 2015, the platform is now used by over 2,000 customers including Toshiba, Giacom, Daisy Telecom and Tower Housewares. The business, which is based in Stockport and employs 26 staff, has almost doubled annual recurring revenue (ARR) to £1.4 million over the past 18 months and aims to triple that within the next three years.

The funding round, which brings the total raised to £6 million, will enable it to expand its presence in the global B2B enterprise market and enhance its platform with new features and integrations.

6. tvScientific

AdTech startup tvScientific, whose clients include Foot Locker, Rare Beauty, has raised a $25.5 million Series B.

In a LinkedIn post, Jason Fairchild, Co-founder and CEO, said: "This funding will be critical as we work to 10x the CTV ad market. CTV advertising is a $30 billion market expected to grow to $42 billion by 2028 as it eats linear dollars. But those figures assume CTV advertising is restricted to brand advertisers."

"We think CTV advertising is a 10x larger opportunity. It will get there by becoming a performance channel, which will open CTV to performance advertisers, including e-commerce brands and SMBs, who have made search and social a combined $500 billion category."

NewRoad Capital Partners led the round, which also included Roku, a first time investment from Second Alpha Partners, and participation from existing backers Norwest Venture Partners, S4S Ventures, and Progress Ventures.

Fairchild commented: "The funding will allow us to scale GTM teams and continue building our patented suite of technologies around identity, outcome measurement, and ML/AI driven TV outcome optimisation.

"Hundreds of advertisers have already used us to drive performance outcomes on CTV. With this funding, we’ll aim to 10X our customer base in the next two years. In doing so, we’ll transform the TV ad market and usher in the era of outcome-based advertising on TV."

7. Archive

Archive, a technology company that powers resale businesses for the likes of The North Face, Oscar de la Renta, New Balance and Dr. Martens, has secured $30 million in a Series B round, led by Energize Capital, bringing its total funding to date to $54 million.

Other participants included returning investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, G9 Ventures and Capital F, as well as new backers Woodline Partners LP and Frontline Growth. The company also announced that Eileen Waris, Principal at Energize Capital, will join the Archive board of directors.

It will use the new funding to further develop its resale intelligence software, accelerate its global expansion, and invest in new product innovation and services.

“Resale has proven wildly popular with consumers and a significant and profitable growth opportunity for brands, allowing them to drive sales, customer loyalty and sustainability at the same time,” says Emily Gittins, Co-founder and CEO at Archive.

“We’re extremely pleased to partner with this prestigious group of investors as we help brands launch and scale resale channels that strengthen their business. This new investment will allow us to continue to lead through innovation and to add top engineering talent and resale industry experts to our team to support our growing global footprint.”

8. Receipts

Norwegian startup Receipts has bagged €1.7 million for its focus on sending digital receipts direct from a retailer to shoppers' banking apps.

DNB Ventures led the round and will become the largest shareholder aside from the company’s founders.

Anders Østensvig, Investment Manager at DNB Ventures, says: “Through active ownership, DNB Ventures will be a driver of mutual learning and insight between DNB and the portfolio companies, while also contributing to the companies’ development.”

“We saw early on that there was a good match between Receipts and our venture business. There is great potential for knowledge exchange and collaboration, and thus a good opportunity for us to contribute more than just capital."

Kent Olav Ferstad, CEO at Receipts, says: “Our ambition is to establish Receipts as the preferred infrastructure for digital receipts and “tap to identify” in Norway, and then expand internationally. This investment is an important step on the way. We are humbled by the work that remains and by the trust these professional investors show us.”