Forerunner backed startup Marklo pulls in $5 million as company launches agentic marketing platform
Marklo has announced $5 million in seed funding led by Forerunner, with participation from Freestyle Capital. It has also opened its public beta. Marklo is an agentic marketing platform for brands running on Shopify that, according to those involved, understands what is happening across the business, identifies the next revenue opportunity and proactively builds the work for marketers to review and approve.
Used by DTC brands including Away, Clare V., Monica + Andy, Maya Brenner and Latico Leathers, Marklo is pitched as knowing what a brand has sold, what it has marketed, what's in stock and what's coming next, and what's happening outside the brand: what competitors are promoting, what's trending on social and where the category is moving. It reads all of it to determine which campaigns to run next, then builds the work itself: the calendar, the content, the approvals and the team handoffs that used to happen by hand.
"Every tool in a brand's stack is getting AI, but each one only sees its own corner of the business," says Jessica Herrin, Founder and CEO at Marklo (who previously founded Stella & Dot Brands). "Great merchants don't work that way. You can't decide what to market next without knowing what sold, what's in stock, what you've already promoted, what's coming, and what the rest of your category is doing. Marklo sees all of it, spots the next opportunity and gets the work moving."
Marklo connects the tools brands already use - Shopify, Klaviyo, Attentive, Meta, Google, Canva, Figma and more - so products, inventory, promotions, campaigns, creative and results all sit in one system. Once connected, it reconstructs launches, promotions, email, SMS, paid media, social activity and revenue into a day-by-day, year-over-year marketing calendar, with the aim of giving teams an immediate view of what drove sales and what was happening around it.
"We already had Shopify, Klaviyo and analytics tools. What was missing was one place that connected all of our marketing campaigns, inventory and sales data," says Allison Plaisance, Senior Director of Retention Marketing at Away. "Marklo gives us the whole commercial picture and an actionable path forward."
"One of the most pervasive shifts in startup formation over the past few years is leaner teams doing more with less. Intelligence changed the equation for how builders can bring products to life, and market and scale them," says Kirsten Green, Founding Partner at Forerunner. "Consumer brands are some of the businesses that stand to benefit from this most. Jessica understands this opportunity deeply, as she spent 20 years building breakout brands and is a genuine expert on how AI can better drive and accelerate the marketing funnel."
Marklo will use the funding to grow its product and engineering teams, expand its public beta and invest in customer success and community programmes.
"Most brands are running cross-channel marketing out of a patchwork of spreadsheets, decks and ten different logins," says Herrin. "I've been lucky to build with great merchandising, creative and business intelligence teams, and even then, the hardest part was getting everyone working from the same picture. Marklo gives every marketer that picture and does the assembly work around it, whether the team is two people or twenty, so they can make smarter decisions, move faster and stop leaving revenue and margin on the table."
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
AI will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards, which celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world, have now closed for entries. 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 2026 shortlists and finalists here.
We received a record number of entries this year and many fantastic examples of technology excellence driving transformative change across the global retail sector.
Congratulations to all those who made it through the initial submission process! It’s now over to our star studded judging panel who will decide the winners to be announced at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London.
The event will be held on Wednesday, 4th November and consist of a drinks reception, three course meal, awards ceremony presided over by award winning stand-up comedian, presenter, actor and broadcaster, Aurie Styla, and after party until 1am.
Click here to book your place at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, 4th November.
