Augmodo bags $21 million in funding to takes its AI powered offering beyond retail stores
Augmodo, a US-based startup that puts AI powered cameras onto retail workers to track store shelves, has secured $21 million in a funding round led by existing backer TQ Ventures, taking its valuation to $350 million. The company says that it is scaling AI assistants for the physical workforce and accelerating its roadmap into manufacturing, automotive, convenience stores, and more.
“Just as AI is changing knowledge work, Augmodo’s physical AI is changing the future of physical work,” says Ross Finman, Founder and CEO. “The core thesis: picking up a box of Cheerios for an e-commerce order and picking up a wrench on a factory floor require the exact same intelligence. Both require a computer that understands a person, a hand, an object, and the 3D space around them in real-time. We built that by capturing egocentric data, seeing the world seamlessly through the physical worker's eyes, to enhance and enable people.”
He adds: “We weren't raising, but TQ saw our traction and came to us wanting to double down. We were excited to accelerate and follow the market pull beyond our initial go to market to build out our vision of augmenting the physical workforce with physical AI tools. An enterprise's best asset is its people, and our human powered AI is built to dramatically enhance the workforce rather than replace it.”
“Building an AI assistant that works seamlessly in dynamic, messy, real-world environments is incredibly challenging. But that's where the highest value lies. This capital gives us the runway to aggressively expand our global enterprise footprint, invest deeply in our core AI models, and scale our engineering team.”
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
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.
