A report providing an overview of the Retail Technology startup landscape. Includes a sector overview, graphical trends with insights, and recent funding and exit events. Contact info@venturescanner.com to learn more!
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April 2017
Retail Technology
Q2 Startup Market Trends and Insights
2. Retail technology report outline
2
This report provides an overview of the retail technology sector and is broken
down into three sections
Sector Description
High-level sector
metrics, maps, and
category definitions
Trends & Insights
Infographics and data
points for the retail
technology sector
Quarterly Activity
Major funding and exit
events from the previous
90 days
Venture Scanner reports are built by analysts utilizing our startup
database and research platform
4. Retail tech startups are creating new businesses in 22 categories
4
Retail
Technology
Learn about our full 1,586 company
report with $41B in funding
The graphic above shows a sampling of companies in each category, stats as of April 2017
Personalization In-Store ExperienceStore Analytics In-Store Management
Data and Analytics
Point of Sale
Last Mile Logistics
Retargeting
O2O Payments Recommendation
Made to Measure Local Incentives
Coupons Price Comparison Marketing and CRM Infrastructure/Enablers
Daily Deals Retail AR Loyalty Programs Local Availability
Social Discovery Local Ad Tech
5. 5
Innovation quadrant for retail technology
AVERAGE FUNDING ($M)
AVERAGEAGE(YEARS)
ESTABLISHED HEAVYWEIGHTS
PIONEERS DISRUPTORS
This quadrant shows a relative segmentation of the categories with respect to one another, data as of April 2017
POS
Payments
Social
Discovery
Last Mile
Logistics
Physical Store
Analytics
O2O
Payments
Local
Incentives
In-Store
Experience
Marketing
Platforms
Product
Recommendation
Loyalty
Programs
Coupons
Automated
Personalization
Local
Availability
Retargeting
Made-to-Measure
Data and
Analytics
Local
Advertising
Retail
AR
Price Comparison
In-Store
Management
Local Daily Deals
Infrastructure
6. Retail technology startups play in many different categories (1 of 3)
6
Automated Personalization Platforms
123 Startups, $2.3B Total Funding
Companies that deliver custom ads, marketing
messages, or dynamically optimized webpages for
different users
Category stats as of April 2017
Data and Analytics
75 Startups, $1.2B Total Funding
Companies that acquire, organize, and distribute
data for retailers to enhance their applications and
service offerings
In-Store Experience
173 Startups, $5.8B Total Funding
Companies that enhance a customer’s journey
through a store using solutions such as digital
engagement, mobile apps, and gamification
Last Mile Logistics
177 Startups, $8B Total Funding
Companies that are innovating on the last phase of
the supply chain, from the store or warehouse to the
consumer’s location
Coupons
52 Startups, $860M Total Funding
Companies that provide retailers with physical and
digital merchant coupon solutions, as well as the
security functions to go along with them
Infrastructure and Enablers
61 Startups, $1.5B Total Funding
Companies that help retailers improve existing
technologies and create new ones, such as retailer-
branded mobile smartphone applications
In-Store Management
35 Startups, $241M Total Funding
Companies that improve the productivity of brick
and mortar sales associates by tracking their
effectiveness and providing feedback
Local Advertising Technology
33 Startups, $463M Total Funding
Companies that use mobile technology to alert
consumers of a retail product or service available
near their location
7. Retail technology startups play in many different categories (2 of 3)
7
Local Daily Deals
44 Startups, $2.5B Total Funding
Companies that sell vouchers for locally available
goods and services at a steeply discounted price for a
limited duration
Category stats as of April 2017
Loyalty Programs
129 Startups, $1.9B Total Funding
Companies that provide the technology to power a
retailer’s customer loyalty program, such as tracking
purchases for reward points
Marketing Platforms and CRMs
180 Startups, $6.8B Total Funding
Companies that enable retailers to execute
marketing campaigns and engage with their
customers across social media channels
Physical Store Analytics
92 Startups, $2.8B Total Funding
Companies that provide retailers with data about in-
store customer behavior to increase revenue and
conversion rates
Local Incentives
81 Startups, $1.8B Total Funding
Companies that help retailers attract new and repeat
customers through gamification, frequency rewards,
or discounts
Made to Measure Customization
60 Startups, $467M Total Funding
Companies that use proprietary technologies and
supply chain processes to enable shoppers to create
custom fitted products
Online to Offline Payments
67 Startups, $2B Total Funding
Companies that provide consumers with mobile
wallets or other digital storage functionality related
to payments
Point of Sale Payments
177 Startups, $8B Total Funding
Companies that provide physical payment solutions
for brick-and-mortar businesses and organizations,
such as near-field communication for payments
8. Retail technology startups play in many different categories (3 of 3)
8
Price and Feature Comparison
27 Startups, $199M Total Funding
Companies that empower consumers to compare
product prices at different outlets or compare
features across similar products
Category stats as of April 2017
Retail Augmented Reality
26 Startups, $228M Total Funding
Companies that enable consumers to interact with
products using augmented reality to try them out or
see additional product information
Search and Local Availability
49 Startups, $616M Total Funding
Companies that allow consumers to search for the
local availability of products and check their prices
and store-level inventory
Product Recommendation
86 Startups, $1.9B Total Funding
Companies that use crowd sourced data, stylists, or
algorithms to determine the best products for a
specific shopper
Retargeting
45 Startups, $735M Total Funding
Companies that track a consumer’s location online
to serve them relevant dynamic ads as they move
across the web
Social Discovery
70 Startups, $2.8B Total Funding
Companies that allow for the discovery of products
through social sharing and location check-ins, as well
as the ability to purchase items from social websites
10. 10
Investing into retail technology happens in a variety of categories
The payments categories account for 20% of venture funding and 16% of
total companies in the retail technology sector
Venture Investing in Retail Technology
Companies are categorized by function, and therefore can exist in multiple categories. Data through April 2017
-
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
CompanyCount
TotalFunding($B)
VC Funding Count
11. 11
VC funding into retail tech has grown over the past decade
Overall retail technology VC funding grew at a CAGR of 21% from 2011-
2016, and 2017 is on pace to be the highest funding year ever
Retail Technology Funding Over Time
Data through April 2017
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
TotalFunding($B)
12. 12
Retail technology startups are finding funding across the spectrum
Retail Technology Funding Amount By Round
2016 funding amounts were relatively equal amongst the various rounds
Graphs shows only the funding rounds listed therein, data through April 2017
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
FundingAmount($B)
Late Stage Series D Series C Series B Series A Seed
13. 13
Retail technology startups founded in 2012 lead in VC funding
Startups founded in 2012 account for 16% of the sector funding over the last
decade, and include companies like Instacart, Affirm, and Deliveroo
Retail Technology Funding By Vintage Year
Data through April 2017
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
TotalFunding($B)
Year Founded
14. 14
Retail technology startups are a global phenomenon
Retail Technology Startup Count by Country
0 900
Companies
Data through April 2017
15. 15
Top VC investors are making bets into the retail technology sector
Selected Investor Activity in Retail Technology
The above count represents a subset of overall investor activity, data through April 2017
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
NumberofInvestments
Number of Investments Number of Companies Backed
16. 16
Retail technology exit activity is picking back up
Exit events within the retail technology sector grew by 179% from 2011
to 2016, and 2017 is on track to have the most exits ever
Retail Technology M&A and IPO Events By Year
Data through April 2017
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
NumberofExits
Public Acquired
18. 18
Recent retail technology funding statistics
There have been 112 retail technology funding events from
January 2017 through March 2017
Recent Retail Technology Funding Round Counts
Graph shows only the funding types listed therein, data as of April 2017
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Seed Series A Series B Series C Series D Late Stage
FundingEventCount
19. 19
Recent retail technology funding events
Notable Recent Retail Technology Funding Events
Company Funding Type Amount Date
Private Equity $1,100,000,000 Jan 24, 2017
Series D $400,000,000 Mar 7, 2017
Private Equity $250,000,000 Jan 4, 2017
Private Equity $100,200,000 Mar 23, 2017
Series D $100,000,000 Feb 13, 2017
Retail technology startups raised $3.1 billion from
January 2017 through March 2017
Data as of April 2017
20. 20
Notable recent retail technology exit events
Notable Recent Retail Technology Acquisitions
There have been 14 exit events from January to March 2017,
all of which have been acquisitions
Data as of April 2017
Company Acquirer Amount Date
$100,000,000 Feb 14, 2017
$40,000,000 Mar 2, 2017
Unknown Mar 1, 2017
Unknown Feb 23, 2017
Unknown Jan 19, 2017
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