AI agents become customers as Flying Tiger feels the need for speed: the retail tech week in numbers
Do you like numbers? Do you like retail tech news? Then this is the article for you. Including Buywander, Profound, Flipdish, Ocado Retail, Amazon's Just Walk Out technology, Tesco, DPD, Akeneo, Forter, and the latest edition of the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List.
$21 million...Buywander, an auction-based marketplace for returned and overstocked retail inventory, has announced a $21 million Series A funding round, bringing the company's total funding to date to $28 million.
The round was led by Madrona Venture Group and Inspired Capital. Previous backers include Triple Impact Capital, Silence Ventures, Data Tech Fund and Animal Capital, along with a group of angel investors.
"Retailers are sitting on billions of dollars in returned and overstocked inventory every year, and buyers are hungry for a better way to access it," says Jordan Allen, Co-Founder and CEO of Buywander. "We've seen that appetite play out in every market we've entered. This funding lets us bring that experience to more cities, faster, and introduce Buywander to more people who are excited to discover great products, compete for a win, and give returned goods a second life."
Buywander will use the cash to accelerate expansion across the US, invest in technology, and grow its leadership team, building on its eight locations including recent market launches in Denver, Chicago, and an upcoming opening in Minneapolis.
100...The latest edition of the RTIH Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers List is here! The list has seen a surge in popularity over the past few years, to the point that we’ve decided publishing it once a year is no longer enough. Here, then, is the second edition for 2026, with some names dropping out of the top 100 and some new names coming in (the latter are flagged as new entries for ease of reference).
Including the likes of retailers, brands, technologists, analysts, and consultants, the list celebrates individuals who are helping to redefine retail in a fast moving omnichannel age.
We use a variety of sources to select our top 100, including feedback from industry observers, research within our own networks, direct or third–party nominations via our website, and social media tools.
In addition to social presence, we also take into account award winners and judges, event speakers, books published, media appearances, and people building innovative companies, solutions etc in the retail space.
We hope you enjoy reading through the top 100 and, as always, if you would like to give feedback or believe that there are some glaring omissions, please feel free to get in touch.
Many thanks to 3D Cloud, which provides 3D product visualisation software trusted by top furniture and DIY retailers, for sponsoring the list.
You can download the top 100 in pdf format here.
$11 million...Copenhagen-based startup Complir, an AI infrastructure platform helping retailers and consumer brands manage product compliance across international markets, has announced a $11 million seed round.
The investment - led by General Catalyst alongside angel investors and specialist industry funds - will support its commercial expansion and go-to-market efforts, alongside investment in engineering and product development, and its teams. It follows the company’s $2 million pre-seed round in December 2025.
The platform is being used by the likes of Flying Tiger, Konges Sløjd, Matas Group and COOP Trading.
Mathilde Blander Bjerregaard at Flying Tiger, says: “There is a built in ‘need for speed’, especially in a seasonal business like ours. We can only deliver on time if we have 100% control over compliance for every single market.”
Thomas Ernfeldt, Chief Operating Officer at Konges Sløjd, says: “Complir has transformed the way we manage product compliance. It replaces a significant amount of manual work with a more streamlined and transparent process, freeing our teams to focus their time on quality assurance and product development while ensuring our products meet the necessary requirements.”
10,000 and £230,000...Flipdish, an AI platform for restaurants, reports that independent restaurants throughout the UK and Ireland have placed over 10,000 orders via its AI Phone Agent, resulting in revenues in excess of £230,000.
Initially launched at Dished Live 25 in November, the product (which has helped to facilitate over 13,000 orders to date), was created in response to a common problem restaurants face: phone orders are still an important source of income, but calls are often missed during peak times, meaning potential orders are abandoned.
The AI Phone Agent answers incoming calls, takes orders, suggests appropriate add-on products such as side dishes, and submits the confirmed order right to the Flipdish PoS, KDS or terminal, allowing the operator to receive orders without removing its staff from food preparations and serving customers in-store.
"10,000+ orders and £230k in revenue is a great milestone, but the real win is what it represents. Fewer missed calls, less chaos during peak service, and more orders captured without dragging staff away from the kitchen or the counter,” says Conor McCarthy, Co-Founder and CEO at Flipdish. "Restaurants shouldn't have to choose between answering the phone and looking after the customers in front of them. We built AI Phone Agent to take that pressure off teams. It can take multiple calls and orders at the same time, so revenue keeps coming in even when the restaurant is flat out."
$180 million and $1.8 billion...Profound has raised a $180 million Series D at a $1.8 billion valuation, co-led by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins, as it builds an AI platform for marketing.
“Two years ago we bet that people would stop clicking blue links and ask AI for the answer. It happened. The agent is now the customer. It scans hundreds of thousands of sources to form an opinion of your brand, and it wants all content current and specific,” says says James Cadwallader, CEO and Co-founder, Profound.
He adds: “Winning in AI search means being everywhere, all at once. It's an inhuman amount of work, and the only way to do it is with agents. That's why we built your AI Marketer, powered by Context Manager. Your AI Marketer is a marketing expert that proactively investigates your data, identifies opportunities, and then does the work while you stay in the loop. Context Manager is the system of record for your marketing context. It turns your meetings, threads, and brand data into one shared, permissioned understanding of your brand, plus a personal layer for how you work. This context is the antidote to slop, so as your brand evolves, so does your AI Marketer.”
“Today, more than 2,500 brands, including a third of the Fortune 100, do their marketing in Profound. Profound lives at the application layer, meaning your AI Marketer can harness the raw intelligence of Fable this week and Astra next week. And CMO's can audit, govern, and meter its work. I speak to CMOs every day and the expectation of what AI should do for marketing has changed completely. Yet frontier intelligence keeps going to code, finance and law. Engineers have Cognition. Lawyers have Harvey. Marketers… have been left in the lurch. Profound is expanding our applied AI research team to post-train models for marketing and build the first benchmark for real-world marketing tasks. More coming on that soon.”
350...Over 350 M&S Food stores now offer Too Good To Go Surprise Bags made up of surplus bakery products, giving customers the chance to collect food at a reduced price at the end of the day directly from in-store bakeries.
Too Good To Go is an app for surplus food. The national launch follows a trial in a select number of locations across the UK and is the latest move in M&S Food’s work to reduce food waste and ensure good food doesn’t go to waste. The Surprise Bags will include the likes of pastries, cookies and bread baked in-store. Each will include three to four products to a minimum retail price of £10.20 for £3.80. Customers can order them through the aforementioned app and collect them Monday to Saturday, one hour before their local store closes.
The partnership sits alongside M&S’s wider Plan A programme to halve food waste by 2030 and to help edible surplus food find its way to a dinner plate.
Lucinda Langton, Head of Sustainability at M&S Food, says: “Too Good To Go is a brilliant example of how we’re turning our commitment to reducing food waste into practical action. By giving customers access to surprise bags of surplus bakery products, we can help ensure more of our food is enjoyed. The response from our trial stores has been outstanding, and this partnership is another positive step towards our goal of halving food waste by 2030.”
DKK 380 million...Danish retailer Søstrene Grene has invested DKK 380 million in an automated logistics setup in Denmark and the Netherlands, alongside an implementation of SAP technology.
In a LinkedIn post, the retailer said: “Recently, we welcomed Danish business newspaper Børsen to our distribution centre in Aarslev for a closer look at how automation is helping us build for the future. Importantly, automation is not about replacing our employees. They are being trained to take on more specialised tasks, while automation primarily reduces our reliance on seasonal workers during peak periods and creates a safer working environment with less heavy lifting.”
It added: “The automated journey begins as soon as goods arrive at our distribution centre, where an inbound robotic solution receives and sorts them. In our e-commerce operation, mobile robots pick online orders before automated packing solutions prepare them for shipment. This not only makes our operation more efficient but also reduces the amount of packaging and empty space in each box.”
It concluded: “Automation is helping us increase efficiency, reduce CO₂ emissions across our logistics operations and create a better working environment for our employees - with fewer manual tasks and less heavy lifting. With this strong foundation, we are ready to pursue our ambition of reaching 500 stores across markets in the next few years.”
23%...New research, involving 2,000 respondents in the UK, from SAP Engagement Cloud reveals that while Gen Z is leading the adoption of AI powered shopping, it is also the generation most likely to walk away from brands that fail to meet expectations around how AI is used.
According to SAP's 2026 Customer Loyalty Index, AI is rapidly becoming part of the shopping journey. 23% of UK consumers regularly rely on AI tools or assistants when deciding what to buy, while 26% have purchased products recommended by an AI assistant. A further 23% would be comfortable allowing an AI assistant to make purchases on their behalf.
Gen Z is increasingly giving AI a significant role in what they discover, choose and buy. In the UK, 48% of Gen Z consumers have purchased products recommended by AI and 37% would trust an assistant to make a purchase on their behalf. Yet 43% say they have switched brands because of how AI was used.
The research also points to a broader shift in consumer influence. 23% of UK shoppers would prefer recommendations from AI over advice from friends and family, highlighting AI's growing role in shaping purchasing decisions. For brands, the findings suggest that greater adoption does not automatically translate into greater customer loyalty. While AI has the potential to strengthen relationships, Gen Z consumers expect brands to use the technology responsibly and transparently.
2,000...Tesco reports the roll-out of its 2,000th electric home delivery van, arriving last week at the retailer’s Hemsworth Superstore in West Yorkshire, where the store runs six of these vans.
Tesco has doubled the number of electric home delivery vans over the last year, with more than 30% of the fleet now powered by electricity. It is looking to transition to a fully electric fleet in the UK by the end of 2030.
Since introducing its first electric home delivery van in Greater London in 2020, its fleet of electric vehicles, powered by renewable electricity, has replaced millions of diesel delivery miles. It announced in October 2025 the deployment of its 1,000th electric home delivery van, which entered service at the Cardiff Extra store.
“The arrival of our 2,000th van at Hemsworth is another important milestone in our journey towards a fully electric home delivery fleet across the UK by 2030. Every new electric van we introduce helps us reduce emissions, improve local air quality and move closer to our goal of achieving net zero in our own operations by 2035. We're proud to be leading the way in the transition to low emissions home delivery for our customers,” says Nick Potter, Transport Distribution Director at Tesco.
600,000...Ocado Retail, part of grocery technology and retail specialist Ocado Group and the operator of Ocado.com, a joint venture with Marks and Spencer, has racked up 600,000 orders in a single week.
In a LinkedIn post, the venture said: "What a week! Reaching a milestone of this scale takes incredible dedication, teamwork, and effort from every single person across our business. To mark the achievement, we brought the celebration into the office with plenty of team spirit, decorations, sweet treats, and a competition giving colleagues the chance to win even more Ocado goodies!"
Reaching over 80% of the UK population, Ocado lays claim to more than one million active customers and a range of around 50,000 products (including big name brands, over 7,000 items from the M&S food and drink range and Ocado’s Own-Range).
To put the 600,000 milestone in context, UK market leader Tesco currently handles over 1.2 million online grocery orders each week.
400...Amazon has launched Just Walk Out technology powered stores across venues Soldier Field, Kroger Field/Kentucky Wildcats and Spartan Stadium/Michigan State Athletics.
In a LinkedIn post, Wes Moon, Sr. Tech Business Development Manager, Just Walk Out Technology - Sports & Entertainment, Amazon, said: "We've now surpassed 400 stores globally, hundreds of these deployed across sports and entertainment venues - milestones for this game-changing tech that wouldn't be possible without game-changing partners like Levy Restaurants & Gallery."
He added: "Our focus remains on optimising the fan experience: getting fans back to their seats faster, reducing wait times, and making every visit seamless from entry to exit. Reach out if you are interested in learning how Just Walk Out technology can transform experiences at your venue."
47 and 600...Uber Technologies and Costco have announced an expansion of their US partnership, bringing Costco delivery through Uber Eats to customers in 47 states, up from 17. Nearly 600 of the retailer’s locations are now available on the on demand delivery platform.
This includes locations in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania. Costco’s full inventory of items - from bulk paper goods and groceries to its line of Kirkland Signature products, including the fan favorite $5 rotisserie chicken - is available for delivery.
“We are thrilled to expand our partnership with Costco nationwide, giving Costco members more ways to shop and bringing the brand’s storied selection and value to more consumers,” says Andrew Macdonald, President and Chief Operating Officer at Uber. “Costco is one of the largest and most trusted retailers in the country for good reason, and our nationwide partnership demonstrates the scale and opportunity Uber can bring to retailers looking to meet more of consumers’ everyday shopping needs.”
In addition to the US, Costco is also available on Uber Eats in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, France, and Spain.
$15 million...Piston, a cardless payments platform that connects commercial fleets with gas stations and convenience stores, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. FPV Ventures led the round, with participation from existing investors Spark Capital and Pear VC. The financing brings its total capital raised to $22.5 million.
"Commercial fuel still runs on payment technology built for another era," says Vikram Sekhon, Co-founder and CEO at Piston. "Fleet fuel fraud is a physical card problem, disguised as a detection issue. We removed the card and built a network that authorises every purchase for a specific driver and vehicle at the Point of Sale. This round lets us expand that infrastructure until no commercial driver has to ask whether a station accepts Piston."
"Fuel is one of the largest B2B spend categories in America, and every transaction still runs through decades old card infrastructure," says Nikunj Kothari, Partner at FPV Ventures. "Piston moves that money over its own rails, with no card networks or intermediaries in between. Vikram ran hundreds of trucks and felt this pain every day, and his co-founder Shivam recruited thousands of drivers before they wrote a line of code. This is a new payment network in a massive market, built by the people who actually lived the problem."
Piston will use the new capital to accelerate the US build-out of its payments network, advance product development, and add senior leaders across key areas of the business. Over the next 18 months, the company aims to establish coverage across every US region. This will also lay the groundwork for it to move beyond fuel into broader logistics payments infrastructure.
1...Sitoo, a Sweden founded cloud native unified commerce and PoS platform for fashion and lifestyle retailers, has opened its first US office in New York.
A company spokesperson says: “Opening an office in the heart of the Big Apple is the next step to bringing the success we’ve seen in Europe to retailers across North America. It's not where our US story starts, though.”
“That began in 2018 when Nudie Jeans implemented Sitoo in their US stores and continued in 2023 when Rally House chose Sitoo to power its fast growing store network. Since then we’ve seen more store openings throughout the country alongside building thriving partnerships with amazing companies like Zebra, Adyen and Bloomreach. The office is what comes next.”
CEO and Co-founder Jens Levin comments: "The US is a competitive market, but we’re fully confident in our ability to succeed. We bridge a critical gap by combining enterprise robustness with modern agility. Our Scandinavian approach to efficient, fast, and reliable global execution is a great advantage and something we know will be a real point of difference.”
341 and 4,000...UK parcel delivery company DPD is set to take delivery of 341 new Mercedes-Benz eSprinters in September as part of its investment in more sustainable fleet solutions. These will be deployed within the M25 and across the UK and will take DPD UK’s EV fleet to over 4,000 in total.
The first vehicles will enter service in September, with all of the vans scheduled to be operational by the end of October. In 2025 DPD delivered over 85 million parcels on electric vehicles including a predominantly diesel free final mile service within the North and South Circular in London. Other initiatives include its involvement in the high speed, West Coast Main Line low carbon rail logistics trial with Go-Express.
Olly Craughan, Head of Sustainability at DPD UK, comments: “Large panel vans are the workhorse of our final mile operation so the new eSprinters will give us the capability we need to support far more lower emission deliveries over a wider area. Our EV fleet currently operates in more than 7,300 postcodes across the UK, largely focused on inner city locations where we are able to increase the benefits of operating electric vehicles through a decrease in air pollution. The eSprinters can carry the same payload as the equivalent 3.5t Diesel while the new battery technology and improved range mean more of our depots can start deploying larger EVs further afield.”
“We started this journey in 2018 with the UK’s first all electric parcel delivery depot and the feedback from our EV drivers and our customers continues to be overwhelmingly positive. The advances in both the vehicle technology and the UK’s charging infrastructure have helped with the wider roll-out and ensuring we stay on course to meet our carbon reduction target.”
2…Fanatics Collectibles is gearing up to open its first store in continental Europe this October, located at Rue Saint-Lazare in Paris, building on its debut flagship on London's Regent Street.
The store, which will open on 23rd October, will stock official trading cards across some of the biggest names in sport, including Paris Saint-Germain, UEFA Champions League, Formula 1, NBA, NFL and MLB, as well as entertainment including Disney, Marvel and Star Wars, alongside stickers and memorabilia.
"What we saw in London wasn't just people buying cards, it was collectors building a community around something they love. Paris felt like the natural next step after that response, and France is one of the most exciting markets in Europe for us right now," says David Leiner, President, Trading Cards, Fanatics Collectibles. "We're not looking to change what's already working for collectors here, we want to add something new to it, a space built around trading cards, community, product and the moments that make collecting special. Whether you've been collecting for years or you're just starting out, we want this store to feel like it belongs to you.”
87% of UK organisations using AI are already seeing measurable returns through productivity improvements, cost savings and other commercial benefits, according to Akeneo research.
The UK findings are part of an study of 1,000 senior IT decision-makers across the UK, US, France, Germany and Italy. They show that AI is moving beyond experimentation in every market, although organisations vary considerably in the scale of the returns achieved and how rigorously they measure them.
Across all five countries, 83% of respondents report either significant measurable returns or moderate improvements from AI adoption. This rises to 87% in the UK and France, compared with 84% in the US, 81% in Germany and 74% in Italy.
The UK also has one of the highest proportions of organisations reporting substantial returns. Some 44% say they are seeing significant, measurable benefits and ROI from AI adoption, level with France and ahead of the US at 42%, Italy at 31% and Germany at 28%. A further 43% of UK respondents report moderate improvements in productivity or cost savings.
64% of UK respondents measure AI through efficiency and cost savings, compared with 55% internationally. The UK is also the market most likely to track AI’s contribution to revenue growth, cited by 60% of respondents. This compares with 57% in the US, 36% in France, 35% in Italy and 34% in Germany. Customer experience quality is measured by 53% of UK organisations, while 37% monitor error reduction. None of the UK respondents say their organisation does not currently measure AI’s impact.
The most immediate evidence of AI’s impact can be seen within IT teams. Almost every UK respondent (97%) reports some improvement in IT productivity. Some 44% say AI has delivered significant gains, materially reducing manual effort or time spent on core IT tasks across multiple workflows. This compares with 41% in the US, 35% in France and Italy, and 28% in Germany.
22%...More than a fifth of Brits would trust AI over their partner to pick a Christmas gift for them. A Forter poll of 2,000 people found 22% think the technology would know their likes and dislikes better than their other half.
Among those convinced AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, would outperform a partner or loved one, 47% believe it’s because it could access more options. While 38% think it can analyse their interests more objectively and 36% note the technology remembers details about them better than their other half does.
A further 29% think it knows and understands the trends they’re into more instinctively than anyone else. The research found that 53% of shoppers have used AI already, or are open to using it to find presents this Christmas. 23% of us receive an unwanted gift every year - most commonly from a family member (55%) whilst 12% have come to dread receiving disappointing presents, particularly from their partner.
Of those set to use AI for their shopping this year, 47% said they would be most likely to use it when shopping for their partner, 25% would turn to it for gift ideas for a friend, and 24% for a sibling.
