Avery Dennison stumps up $75 million for minority investment in supply chain technology firm Wiliot

Avery Dennison has announced a $75 million minority investment in Wiliot, a specialist in physical AI for supply chains.

As part of this, Avery Dennison will serve as the preferred inlay design, manufacturing and commercial partner for Wiliot. According to a press release: “The two companies will significantly strengthen and expand their joint go-to-market efforts to accelerate the adoption of digital identities on physical items across key industries including retail, logistics and food.”

Avery Dennison will receive a seat on the board of directors for Wiliot, in addition to its existing board observer position.

“We believe in the power of passive Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) and the significant opportunity to expand our portfolio with the solutions from Wiliot,” says Francisco Melo, President, Intelligent Labels Technologies and Digital Solutions for Avery Dennison.

“BLE is a complementary technology to RFID. It increases the total addressable market and allows us to provide a broader set of solutions for improved visibility and condition monitoring for our customers, unlocking important data sets not possible before. With our strategic investment in Wiliot, we meet growing market demands to create value by connecting the physical and digital worlds.”

“Avery Dennison is a global leader in digital identification solutions and the premier partner in the design, manufacturing and go-to-market capabilities for Wiliot at the scale required to realise accelerating demand,” says Tal Tamir, Co-founder and CEO at Wiliot. “This investment from Avery Dennison and growing partnership across our teams is transformational for the adoption of physical AI.”

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

Physical AI will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.

Check out our 2025 winners here.

Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”

“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”

He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.