Including Voyantis and Speeral: six retail technology funding rounds you need to know about

RTIH rounds up six retail systems ventures who have recently secured significant investments in their businesses, including MarketLeap, Keychain, Cognida.ai, and Shopfront.

1. Cognida.ai

Cognida.ai, which works with clients across the manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and technology sectors, has announced the close of a $15 million Series A funding round, led by Nexus Venture Partners.

“Enterprise AI adoption has reached its tipping point,” says Feroze Mohammed, Founder and CEO at Cognida.ai. "While 87% of enterprises are investing in AI, only 20% successfully deploy solutions into production.”

“We are uniquely positioned to close the divide between ambition and achievement in integrating AI into everyday business processes. We’ve honed the expertise, tools, and delivery model needed to navigate the complexities of AI adoption. This investment validates our approach of delivering measurable ROI through practical AI solutions, leading the next wave of AI services companies.”

2. Keychain

AI powered CPG manufacturing software platform, Keychain, has received backing ($5 million) from the VC arm of Portugal-based retailer Sonae, Bright Pixel Capital, bringing its total funding to $38 million.

“Since Keychain launched last year, we’ve been focused on bringing much needed transparency to the United States’ CPG manufacturing ecosystem,” says Oisin Hanrahan, Cofounder and CEO at Keychain.

“At the same time, we’ve been looking into how we can bring our capabilities to other geographies, and the support of Bright Pixel is a huge step in that direction. We’re also excited to continue building our depth with new tools that will streamline the ways brands source packaging and ingredients.”

“We’re proud to invest in Keychain at such an exciting moment in their journey,” says Manuel Queiroz, Director at Bright Pixel Capital. “Our team is confident in their ability to modernise the global CPG supply chain and is exactly what the European CPG supply chain needs. We look forward to supporting them as they expand their offerings and into more geographies.”

3. Shopfront

E-commerce startup Shopfront has raised $800,000 in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Antler, Co-Ventures, Sendle’s James and Geraldine Chin-Moody’s 5H Values Capital, and Jam Pad Investments. 

The Brisbane-based company says that it allows e-commerce sellers to drop, generate and list products in seconds. It is building automation tools for secondhand, damaged, returned, sample and other one off products across a variety of retail sectors.

In a LinkedIn post, Nate Spiteri, Co-founder and CEO, said: “I've been so pumped to share this news for a few weeks now, but the cat's out the bag and I couldn't be more excited that Shopfront has raised its second round of $800k. But that's not the best part - we also managed to bring on some amazing new investors who have already provided more insight, direction and motivation than we could've imagined.”

4. Speeral

Second-hand market technology specialist Speeral has landed €1.7 million in a pre-seed fundraising round backed by AQUITI Gestion.

In a LinkedIn post, Speeral said: "The second-hand market is booming, reaching $230 billion in 2024. Yet, brands and retailers struggle to tap into it profitably. Many have tried, but building a resale platform solely around their own brand has proven challenging."

It added: "e take a different approach: Seamless connection between Retailers and the C2C market; AI powered technology to automate and scale resale operations; Instant revenue generation through buyback and resale solutions; Retail traffic growth, thanks to in-store pickup options; Precise data insights on product lifecycle and profitability. With our innovative tech, we enable brands to enter the resale market without complexity, without risk, and with real business impact."

The funding will be used for product development, to enhance the company's AI capabilities, and accelerate its market expansion plans.

5. Voyantis

Voyantis, which taps prespcriptive AI to help companies attract and retain customers, has bagged $41 million in Series B funding, led by Intel Capital, with the support of partners including Square Peg, Target Global, Jibe Ventures, Alicorn Venture Partners, Redseed, and Icon.

This brings its total funding to $60 million.

"Looking back, it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come since Ido Wiesenberg (Co-founder and CEO) and I first teamed up. We’ve always been on the same page about the need to move beyond the outdated 'growth at all costs' mentality, and instead focus on growth that is both sustainable and efficient," says Ido Wiesenberg, Co-founder and CTO). "Together, we’ve worked hard to help companies like Miro , Rappi, and MoneyLion acquire, engage, and retain the right customers at the right time, all while improving their unit economics."

He adds: "Over the past two years, we’ve tripled our ARR and expanded globally, and we owe it all to our amazing team and partners. With this new funding, we’re set to accelerate even faster and push the boundaries of innovation. The AI era is here, and we're just getting started on our journey to transform growth."

6. MarketLeap

MarketLeap, an AI driven platform that aims to simplify and scale D2C e-commerce, reports an $8 million Series A funding round led by Smedvig Ventures, with participation from Expon Capital, Motier Ventures and business angels including former executives from Amazon, SoftBank, and Unilever. 

The capital injection will allow the company to accelerate platform development and invest in new employees.

MarketLeap offers customers - including Edible Health, 5 Stars United, and MonkeyHands - a platform solution that uses AI powered automation to navigate the complexities of marketplace operations and backend management. It combines a tech solution with partnerships with marketplaces, third-party logistics (3PL) providers, compliance experts, and finance partners.

The company was founded in 2022 by Mamoun Benkirane and Mekki Mouaddeb, who both previously worked for Amazon and Jumia. The inspiration for MarketLeap came when the former led a webinar for Amazon sellers about expanding into new markets and found himself inundated with emails complaining about the complexity of the process and tools provided. Concurrently, the latter found that while many sellers demonstrate exceptional strengths in sourcing profitable products, they face significant challenges in scaling their operations internationally.

Upon realising more than 90% of sellers with revenues over half a million make more than 80% of their revenue in just one market, the pair launched an e-commerce operating system that uses AI and automation to help brands break through barriers to international expansion by connecting them with global marketplace customers.