Despite Rumors of Its Demise, Retail Tech is Very Much Alive

Every month we seem to experience de deja vu all over again, the inevitable end of retail. This week it's Bed Bath And Beyond. Before it was Party City, Pier 1, Sears, JCPenney, Neiman Marcus, Brooks Brothers and Barneys. From the low end to the high end it seems Amazon and Walmart are eating the world and the pandemic didn’t help.?

With the rapid speed at which consumers are changing the way they engage with retailers, the rise of e-commerce giants like Amazon and the increasing popularity of online shopping, many have predicted the end of brick-and-mortar stores and the technology that supports them.??

However, contrary to popular belief, retail technology is far from dead. In fact, it is evolving at an unprecedented pace, and with the help of emerging technologies, it is transforming the retail industry as we know it.

Despite rumors of its demise, retail technology is very much alive and thriving. Retailers, those who are surviving and thriving, are investing in technology to enhance their operations, from supply chain optimization to improving their in-store experience. Innovation in the retail tech sector is accelerating, fueling a boom of new innovative companies all over the world.?

We analyzed the top 100 Global Retail Tech companies that are growing, attracting capital, and acquiring the war chest of talent. From AI-powered personalization, digital shopper engagement, merchandise planning and inventory management, interactive displays and augmented reality shopping, frictionless checkout experiences, supply chain visibility to robotic fulfillment, these are the companies powering the next era of retail.?

WHO GOT FUNDED

Cart.com - Raised $240M in fresh funding from 2021 and $38M more raised earlier this year, to deliver its multi-channel management software, fulfillment services, marketing services, customer service, and e-commerce analytics software.?

Swiftly - The Seattle-based company reached $1B unicorn status and raised its second $100M round in September of 2022 to continue to help platform brick-and-mortar retailers to level the competitive landscape against the giants and grow their digital, loyalty and retail media programs.?

Locad - The Singapore based company added $15M in January of 2023 to its $40M warchest to power brands like Levi’s with its logistics engine, running storage, packing, shipping, and tracking of products through its international network of warehouses and local carriers in Asia-Pacific.

Agility Robotics - The Oregon based company raised $150M Series B to deliver its jaw-dropping the first human-centric, multi-purpose robot made for logistics work.?

Stockly.ai - The French company raised an $11M Series A to enable e-retailers to sell products they don't have in stock by having the products shipped by other official resellers and brands in the network.

Hivery. The Australian company raised its $29M Series B in July of 2022 and its AI powered hyper-local retail assortment strategy simulation & optimization solutions earned its spot as one of Fast Company’s most innovative companies.

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Dropit - The UK Based company raised a $24M Series C to help retailers like Nike and malls like Simon Malls to use AI insights to validate and optimize retail decisions.?

[Get the data for all funded companies here]?

WHO IS ACQUIRING TALENT

One of the most interesting aspects of retail tech companies is how much they are able to accomplish and the revenue and valuations they are able to achieve with relatively small teams. The average company has 130 employees, with only a handful of companies having over 200 employees and a single company ShopUp in Bangladesh with 1,000 employees. The sector as a whole has been on a talent acquisition binge, with the average company growing its team by 51% in the past year.

Among the companies with highest employee growth in the past 12 months are:

Ikas?- The Turkish e-commerce platform, which grew it’s team by 1688%?

Agility Robotics?- The logistics robotis company which grew its team by 132% following its $150M Series B.

Graas.ai?- The Singapore based company which grew its team 120% to create and market its new AI and predictive analytics engine.?

EcoCart??- The San Francisco based grew by 104% following its $14M Series A to help brands like Walmart, Zenga and Skullcandy meet customer demands to offset their carbon footprints and create sustainable checkout experiences.?

Kevin.?- The Lithuania-based next generation payments infrastructure company grew its team 76% after raising a $65M Series A.?

Channel Engine?- The Netherlands based company used its $49M Series B financing to fuel the growth of its team by 76% to help stores, brands and distributors find millions of new customers by connecting them to the biggest marketplaces.

[Get the data for all companies rapidly hiring here]?

NOTABLE HIRES

To fuel their growth, retail tech companies have gone on an executive talent acquisition streak. Here are some of the notable hires:

Agility Robotics?- Hired Rich Bohen it’s Chief Commercial Officer from Fetch Robotics, It’s CFO Renuka Ayer from Glowforge, Brian Lange it’s VP of Hardware Engineering from Raytheon and it’s COO Aindrea Campbell from Zymergen.

Cart.com?- Hired Eric Erway as VP, Product Experience from Adobe, Collin Mariner as VP Cloud Operations from Majesco, Brian Cothran as VP, Engineering from Wolin Design Group, Joe Barth as SVP Operations and Melissa Anneler as VP Fulfillment Operations from Radial Inc.

Hivery?- Hired Ian Goodwin as Chief Product Officer and Kyle McKenzie as VP of Engineering both from Fabric.?

Graas?- Hired its’ CEO Vikram Ilango, CTO Senthil Udayasooriyan and Chief Delivery Officer Yagnavajjula Mallikarjun all from SELLinALL, who joined the Shoptimize team post acquisition including VP Sales Kartik Mandrekar, EVP Chief Data Officer Vivek Phalak, EVP Chief Inside Sales Officer Verdhan Phadnis and VP Enterprise Business Amruta Dharap.

DropIt?- Hired Jonathan Dampier as SVP Marketing from ClearDATA, Eliav Rodman as VP Marketing from PrettyDamnQuick and Andrew Brummer as CFO from Smarter.

Kevin.?- Hired Ramzi Musa as CRO from SAP, Jone Virbickiene as Chief Product Officer from Ibank and Kasey Ly as Chief Brand Officer from SThree.

[Get the data for the full list of key hires here]?

Despite the rumors of retail's demise, it seems that retail tech is not only alive but thriving. From multi-channel management software to logistics robots and AI-powered hyper-local retail assortment strategies, these innovative companies are powering the next era of retail. And with a talent acquisition binge and impressive funding rounds, it's clear that the retail tech sector is here to stay.?

What sector do you think we should analyze next?