Including ShopAi and Emfas: presenting five retail technology funding rounds you need to know about

RTIH rounds up five retail systems ventures who have recently secured significant investments in their businesses, including companies focused on smart carts, unified commerce offerings, and conversational AI platforms.

1. LocalExpress

LocalExpress, an AI native unified commerce platform working with grocery and food retailers across the US, Canada and LatAm, has secured $6.2 million in venture funding led by OXZ Capital.

The company says it has built AI powered systems that harmonise and process millions of transactions and inventory updates across hundreds of retailers.

Bagrat Safarian, CEO and Co-Founder at LocalExpress, says: "From day one of launching LocalExpress, we have been helping independents with structuring, harmonising and enriching their grocery data.”

“We have built a tremendous data transformation library and now with the AI revolution, we're growing our proprietary grocery data AI to become the Zapier for grocery data - seamlessly connecting and distributing intelligence across the entire tech ecosystem.”

“This amplifies the data intelligence we've built and helps grocers make smarter decisions with timely analytics. OXZ Capital's investment and expertise will help us scale further and faster, particularly as we bring more AI powered solutions to market that empower independent retailers to compete at the highest level." 

2. ShopAi

ShopAi, a startup founded by former Jisp Managing Director, Ilann Hepworth, has bagged £750,000 in funding with Haatch as the lead investor.

“Haatch understand what we're building which is a world's first conversational business intelligence platform. Microsoft charges per person, we charge per platform. While competitors add AI features to existing dashboards we removed dashboards entirely,” says Hepworth.

He adds: “That's the difference between improving old systems and creating new categories. Our architecture removes AI hallucination and delivers a 281% ROI in just three months. Any business with fragmented data can now access everything through natural conversation - text, voice, video, email. This is just the beginning.”

3. Clarity

Clarity, an AI powered customer experience and voice of customer (VoC) platform whose customers include Booking.com and Grubhub, has raised $12 million in new funding.

The round was led by Prosus Ventures with participation from STV Al Fund (backed by Google), Sukna Ventures, Wamda Capital, Neo, Oraseya Capital, Phaze Ventures, Propeller, Tech Invest Com, and angels from OpenAI and Google.

Formerly known as Anecdote, the company has rebranded to Clarity and will use the cash to expand applied AI teams in New York, London and Riyadh.

Abed Kasaji, Co-founder and CEO at Clarity, says: “Rebranding to Clarity is about exactly that, bringing more clarity to customer experience. We want AI to be simple, useful, and safe. A lot of tools in the market cut corners, and that doesn’t work in industries where mistakes aren’t an option.”

“From day one we built Clarity to be compliant, secure, and easy to roll-out. This new funding lets us keep improving the tech and building the right partnerships so companies can finally modernise customer operations with confidence.”

4. A2Z Cust2Mate Solutions

A2Z Cust2Mate Solutions reports the completion of a $45 million equity financing round at $8.00 per share.

This was anchored by Wellington Management, alongside support from existing shareholders Shay Capital, Alyeska Investment Group, Philadelphia Financial, and Linmar Capital.

The funds raised will be used to accelerate the global roll-out of Cust2Mate 3.0 smart shopping carts, establish new fulfillment and logistics centres across Europe, the USA, and Latin America, and enhance the company’s AI driven technology platforms.

Plans are also afoot to fast track retail media deployment, expand advanced data insights capabilities for near-term monetisation, and support the recruitment of talent to drive international growth and innovation.

5. Emfas

Emfas, which connects with e-commerce platforms to unlock AI powered workflows across their product catalogues, has completed a funding round, securing an undisclosed amount from a group of angel investors.

In a LinkedIn post, the company said: “Our mission is simple but ambitious: to help e-commerce brands automate their product catalogues with AI. As Co-Founder and CEO Vidar Trojenborg put it: Just as Shopify solved how to easily create online stores, we want to solve the operational complexity of managing product catalogues - fully powered by AI."

It added: “We’re already partnering with leading brands such as Represent, aim'n, Nudie Jeans, OUR LEGACY and Widforss. A huge thank you to our team, partners, and early adopters who are shaping the future of e-commerce with us.”