Azoma lands investment from dunnhumby ventures to accelerate roadmap for Agentic Commerce platform
Azoma’s Agentic Commerce Optimisation platform, which measures and improves how AI shopping agents discover, interpret and recommend products for retailers and CPG brands, has announced an undisclosed investment from dunnhumby ventures.
As part of this, dunnhumby will be able to extend how it supports its retailer clients in optimising their customer facing chat agents while providing brands with ability to boost their discoverability and relevance in the new agentic commerce ecosystem The new funds will accelerate Azoma's product roadmap for customers including L'Oréal, Unilever and Mars, with a view to extending its ability to connect AI visibility to recommended actions and measuring incremental revenue.
Azoma’s analysis of tens of millions of AI responses in the second quarter of 2026 found that earned or social media accounts for 86.5% of the citations behind Alexa for Shopping's recommendations, and 76% of those behind Walmart Sparky's. ChatGPT draws more heavily on retailer sources, at 37.1%. The answer a shopper receives is therefore assembled largely from sources the brand does not own. This AI visibility problem is what the investment looks to solve for commerce and CPG brands.
Max Sinclair, CEO and Co-Founder, Azoma, comments: "dunnhumby has decades of expertise helping brands and retailers leverage customer data insight. Agentic xommerce is the next frontier. dunnhumby understands this, and brands and retailers’ current data blindness better than anyone. Their investment is a vote of confidence in our current solution and shared vision. In time, their data will help us demonstrate to the world's largest retailers and consumer brands the tangible value of agent driven recommendations. Agentic commerce is a $9 trillion opportunity, and this is how we will continue to define the category."
Leo Nagdas, Head at dunnhumby ventures, has joined Azoma as advisor to the board as part of the investment. Nagdas founded dunnhumby's Retail Innovation Network, an open innovation programme for retail technology leaders.
"AI shopping assistants are rewriting the path to purchase, and today retailers and CPGs have no reliable way to connect what an agent recommends to a sale," he says. "Azoma is a leader in the emerging agentic commerce space, and the team combines real depth in AI with a practical grasp of how retail actually works. Backing companies like Azoma is how we bring emerging technology to our clients as consumer behaviours and retail ecosystems keep changing."
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.
