A Sydney AI-powered ecommerce startup focused on customer satisfaction during delivery – known in the trade as WISMO (Where is my order?) – has raised $2.3 million in pre-Seed funding. The round for Keeyu was led by Rampersand, with support from Archangel, Startmate, Empress Capital, Exhort Ventures, Sydney Angels, Southern Angels, and others including Marketplacer’s… Read more »
Buying and selling online with e-commerce is old news. We’re entering the age of A-commerce, where artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly able to shop for us. At the end of September, OpenAI launched its “Buy it in ChatGPT” trial in the United States, using AI agents built to interact with us to do more of… Read more »
ASX-listed online retailer Kogan.com is back in the red following its write-down of New Zealand acquisition Mighty Ape. Shares in Kogan.com (ASX: KGN) were placed in a trading halt briefly on Monday morning ahead of the results release and news of board changes. The $46.3 million on-cash impairment to goodwill from its $122m Mighty Ape… Read more »
An ecommerce fulfilment business has raised $38 million as it hopes to take on Amazon with same-day delivery for retailers. The raise for Skutopia led by Pemba Capital, with support from MA Financial and Blackpeak Growth Partners, and also includes debt. Skutopia began life in 2018 as Sydney-based Workit Spaces – a coworking hub for… Read more »
An AI-driven eCommerce software platform with the same name as one of the country’s best known Australian financial services companies has raised $20 million. Amp, founded in 2022, has been backed by existing investor, Singapore’s Openspace Ventures, with Sydney’s One Ventures also hitting the EFT button. TradeGecko founder Cameron Priest and Advocately founder Patrick Barnes,… Read more »
Three years after a record $2.2 million pre-Seed round for two teenagers to solve the problem of abandoned online sales, their eCommerce fintech has raised another $18 million in a Series A. The round for Brisbane startup Instant was led by Belgian early stage VC Hummingbird Ventures, which revels in the title “the best venture… Read more »
Bunnings may be a goldmine for Wesfarmers, but ecommerce site Catch has been a millstone since the ASX-listed retail conglomerate bought the tech startup for $230 million in 2019. Today, Wesfarmers announced it will shut down Catch at the end of April, blaming increased competition in Australian ecommerce. They expect Catch to post a loss… Read more »
Melbourne startup Viewa has raised a $300,000 pre-seed round from Skalata to bring augmented reality (AR) into the online shopping experience. An extraordinary 80% of Australians shop via their mobile, making it a challenge to create an experience that leads to sales. Viewa uses 3D, AR and generative AI to lift products from the page… Read more »
Mystery shoppers are not a new concept, but the move to online retail has changed the rules of the game – and hidden the goal posts for retailers. So Sydney startup Humii has raised $300,000 from Melbourne early-stage VC Skalata to bring mystery shoppers back into customer experience (CX) tracking in a new and more… Read more »
A new online marketplace for vintage, and antique furniture and homewares, Bazaa, has raised $650,000 in pre-Seed funding from angel investors and syndicates. The idea is the brainchild of Voly cofounder Thibault Henry, and Aria Wigneswaran, a former director of e-commerce fashion marketplace Depop. Henry calls Bazaa a new way for people to discover, buy… Read more »
Another year, another Black Friday has been and gone. Black Friday is generally the shopping spree that sends consumers into a buying frenzy and businesses into a logistical tangle, but more and more we’re seeing the sale period drag away from the big day and into a month’s worth of offers for savvy shoppers. For… Read more »
The founders of TradeGecko and Advocately, Cameron Priest and Patrick Barnes, are back with a bang thanks to their new e-commerce startup, Amp, which has secured US$18.5 million (A$28.5m) in a series A, having only launched last year. AMP is their solution for the challenge retailers face in using dozens of different apps to run… Read more »
Collingwood supporter and investor Alex Waislitz has led an $11 million raise via his Thorney Investment Group into an ecommerce startup that’s pivoted from being a surfboard rental business to underpinning retailers such as Patagonia. Five-year-old Awayco is a unified ecommerce solution that includes retail Point of Sale (POS), rental and appointments for retailers to… Read more »
Nourished Life founder Irene Falcone’s latest startup venture, Sans Drinks, has fallen victim to the challenging retail environment, with the business handed to administrators. Jirsch Sutherland partner Andrew Spring was appointed administrator of The Non Alcoholic Drinks Co Pty Ltd, trading as San Drinks, on July 17. Spring said it was “still early days in… Read more »
Event rental e-commerce platform Gecko has raised $350,000 in a pre-Seed round led by the NSW government-backed Techstars program in Sydney. Gecko is one of 12 startups selected for the inaugural Techstars Tech Central accelerator program, which got underway earlier this month. US investors Goodwater Capital and Launch House also backed the startups pre-Seed raise. … Read more »
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