Including Reckon.ai, Knit, and Hightouch: six retail technology funding rounds you need to know about

RTIH rounds up six retail systems ventures who have recently secured significant investments in their businesses, including companies specialising in checkout free shopping technology, and conversational and agentic AI to improve hotel guest experiences.

1. Inntelo AI

Inntelo AI, a UK-based startup, has raised more than £500,000 in pre-seed funding to support the launch of its AI Concierge platform.

Led by venture capital fund Haatch and partner British Business Bank, with participation from Look AI Ventures, the cash will be used to support Inntelo’s commercial growth.

Inntelo says multiple hotels, including properties owned by Radisson and Wyndham, have adopted its platform, which uses conversational and agentic AI to improve the guest experience. It automates guest enquires made via WhatsApp or phone and converts the requests into coordinated tasks. This improves team responsiveness across departments including housekeeping, maintenance, food service, spas and other services, it is claimed.

2. Knit

Knit, whose AI powered consumer research platform is used by brands like NASCAR, Amazon, Mars Wrigley, and Overtime, has bagged $16.1 million in Series A funding. This was led by GFT Ventures and Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures with continued participation from Silicon Road Ventures, Osage Ventures, Rise of the Rest, and others.

Notable angel investors such as David Kirk, former Chief Scientist at NVIDIA, and Gokul Rajaram, founding partner of Marathon Management, also took part.

“Today’s enterprise researchers are being asked to do more with less,” says Aneesh Dhawan, Co-Founder and CEO at Knit. “Knit empowers them to deliver fast, cost efficient insights without sacrificing quality or control. This funding accelerates our vision for a human + AI platform that makes research accessible, contextual, and decision ready.”

3. Reckon.ai

Reckon.ai, a Portugal-based startup, has raised €5.1 million in funding in a round led by Iberis Capital. This also included participation from private equity funds Alea and Touro.

Reckon.ai will use the cash to accelerate international expansion and enter new market segments.

In a LinkedIn post, it said: “A warm welcome to our new investors Iberis Capital, Alea Capital Partners, and Touro Capital Partners, bringing our total funding to €8.5 million - more exciting news will come soon! This investment marks another significant milestone in our journey to transform autonomous retail through smart cabinets.”

It added: “We are grateful to our amazing team, loyal customers, trusted partners, and current investors who have made this possible. Here's to the future and the exciting opportunities ahead! Stay tuned.”

We’re proud to announce the launch of a new Carrefour Buybye Smart Store, now open at NATO Headquarters — powered by https://t.co/Jf9Ku7uUbj 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆.#ReckonAI #SmartStores #CarrefourBuybye #RetailInnovation #NATO #CheckoutFree #UnattendedRetail pic.twitter.com/UOARCaKoOO

— Reckon.ai (@Reckonai) May 21, 2025

4. Jarvio

Dublin-based Jarvio has secured a $1.8 million pre-seed round as it looks to build the future of Amazon selling, powered by AI.

This is backed by Darius Cubed, Baseline VC, NDRC, Enterprise Ireland, an Accel scout, and angels from the likes of Amazon, Wayflyer, Target, Meta, MongoDB, J.P. Morgan, and Fexco.

In an online post, Jarvio said: "This raise marks a huge milestone for us, but the journey didn't start here. We began a few years ago packing boxes in our living room, sourcing whatever we could find in local stores. We bought everything from soy sauce to cement to bird feeders, and sold it on Amazon. It was messy, scrappy, and completely hands-on."

"That retail arbitrage hustle eventually led us into online arbitrage (doing the same thing in online stores), then into wholesale distribution. Before long, we found ourselves deep in the world of Amazon, not just as sellers, but as operators who understood the day to day chaos brands were facing."

It added: "That's where we saw the frustration from brands who were trying to sell online. Every conversation came back to the same thing: running an Amazon business was way too complex. Brands were drowning in spreadsheets, SOPs, and disconnected tools just to keep the lights on."

"So we rolled up our sleeves and started helping them directly, building an agency to handle all the messy backend operations. From inventory and listings to ads and account health, we did it all. And the more brands we worked with, the clearer it became: this needed to be solved with software, not services.”

5. Datavations

Datavations, a New York-based data and AI powered intelligence provider for the building materials and home improvement industries, has closed a Series A funding round, securing $17 million in new equity capital.

This was led by Forestay Capital, with participation from Morpheus Ventures, as well as existing investors Sage Venture Partners, Nevcaut Ventures, and board member Jay Steinfeld. Additional backers include Rusty Reed, former CFO of Procore Technologies, and Travis May, founder of LiveRamp and Datavant. The investment brings Datavations’ total funding to date to $27 million.

The Series A round will enable the company to accelerate growth across all fronts by scaling its team and advancing product development. The cash will also support expansion across North America and help deepen relationships with clients.

Its platform, powered by advanced machine learning and AI, provides manufacturers with a data driven approach to better serve customers and grow their relationships with key accounts. By simplifying massive datasets into actionable business insights, it says it helps businesses make decisions to optimise pricing, inventory, and product assortment.

6. Hightouch

Hightouch, a data and AI agent platform for marketers, reports an undisclosed investment from Snowflake Ventures and Capital One Ventures. This extends an oversubscribed Series C round.

In 2024, Hightouch, whose clients include PetSmart and Cars.com, introduced what is pitched as the world’s first agentic AI product for lifecycle marketing called AI Decisioning.

“This investment is a major vote of confidence in our vision for AI-powered marketing,” says Tejas Manohar, Co-CEO and Co-Founder at Hightouch.

“We’ve seen incredible traction with AI Decisioning, and this investment enables us to scale faster, deliver even more value to customers, and continue reimagining how businesses personalise experiences through data and AI. The investment from Snowflake Ventures will also help accelerate the development of our joint solutions, further empowering our mutual customers to activate their data and enhance their marketing capabilities.”