RTIH reviews the retail technology space in August — Retail Technology Innovation Hub
E-commerce out of home delivery and returns venture, InPost, announced deployment of its 2,000th automated parcel machine - or locker unit - in the UK.
Retail marketing technology venture Bluecore closed a $125 million Series E funding round led by existing investor Georgian.
Digital experience intelligence specialist, FullStory, secured $103 million in funding, valuing it at $1.8 billion.
Suma Brands, which acquires brands selling and fulfilling their orders via Amazon, bagged $150 million in funding in a Series A round headed up by Pace Capital and Material alongside a credit facility led by i80 Group.
Bad month for…
#SilentSainsburys was trending on Twitter this month as the grocery giant came under increasing pressure to stop advertising during Nigel Farage’s new show on GB News.
Klarna’s losses increased significantly in the second quarter.
The Swedish buy now, pay later venture, most recently valued at $46 billion in an investment round led by Japan’s SoftBank, increased the volume of purchases it processed on behalf of retailers by two-thirds in the second quarter to $20 billion.
But its operating losses rose from SKr89 million ($10 million) a year earlier to SKr965 million ($111 million) as credit losses more than doubled in the second quarter.
Albinder Dhindsa, the founder of Indian startup Grofers, responded to “hate” being directed at his company.
Grofers has been facing a social media backlash, with people claiming that its delivery partners are being exploited.
Also this month…
Berlin-based on-demand grocery delivery startup, Flink, said that it now had 100+ fulfilment hubs within Germany, the Netherlands, and France.
The venture, which only officially launched earlier this year, delivers items from this network in under 10 minutes.
It recently raised $240 million to expand its business into more cities and countries.
Following the introduction of Simbe Robotics’ autonomous robot Tally in select stores, Schnuck Markets announced a multi-year, full scale roll-out at 111 locations across the US.
It said that this made it the first grocer in the world to utilise AI powered inventory management technology at scale.
Gloss