ARC bags $60 million from Acadia Investment Partners to tackle a major retail technology problem
ARC, an enterprise device management platform helping retailers and supply chain organisations manage the technology powering their frontline workforce, has announced a $60 million growth investment from Acadia Investment Partners. This takes the total raised to date to $100 million.
“We built ARC because we saw a decades old operational problem hiding in plain sight,” says Douglas Baldasare, CEO at ARC. “Having learned from our experience in solving complex consumer device challenges in live field environments, we appreciated the complexity and technological know-how that are needed to truly solve the problem space for the frontline workforce.”
“Enterprises invest billions in devices designed to amplify worker output. But, when those devices aren’t working, aren’t charged, or aren’t readily available, the investment is wasted and worker output goes down. ARC provides the infrastructure and intelligence to solve those challenges upstream, holistically solving the problems with advanced logic, seamless and adaptive user experiences, thoughtful rule-based logic, and full accountability and visibility. With Acadia’s partnership, we can accelerate our vision to become the technology platform that powers the frontline workforce.”
ARC will use the cash to accelerate product development and scale operational resources, extending its platform to additional frontline intensive industries.
“ARC has the characteristics we look for in a category defining technology business: a large and persistent problem, a differentiated solution, demonstrated customer value, and significant room to scale,” says Harsh Agarwal, Founder and Managing Partner at Acadia Investment Partners. “As frontline operations become increasingly technology dependent, effectively managing the devices that power those operations becomes even more mission critical. We believe ARC is exceptionally well positioned to continue its substantial growth trajectory by solving these complex operational problems and defining this category.”
Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed. As part of the investment, Acadia Investment Partners’ Harsh Agarwal and Peter Schmitt will join ARC’s board of directors.
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
Frontline workforce technology 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.
