But after bringing in $260M in funding, momentum in the space has stalled, with funding drying up in part due to the broader venture slowdown (link-in-bio companies have raised just $12M in 2023 YTD).

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But the post-Covid comedown has been hard on connected fitness equipment players — which gained a lot of attention during the height of the pandemic from locked-down consumers — leading to disappointing hardware sales for MIRROR, as mentioned on Lululemon’s most recent earnings call:

“The overall at-home fitness space remains challenged. MIRROR hardware sales during the holiday season came in below our expectations” 

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With content demand on the rise, brands and retailers face the additional challenge of creating a sufficient amount of quality content across different platforms to engage and convert users. As a result, they are turning to new solutions to create, manage, and distribute content at scale.

Generative AI developments are only propelling the space forward. Content creation and distribution solutions are quickly incorporating GenAI to expedite content creation and creative processes at an unprecedented rate.

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The beauty giant paid $2.5B — nearly 23x Aēsop’s valuation of $110M when its former owner Natura took a majority stake in 2012. 

But with such a large price tag, did L’Oréal overpay for Aēsop?

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While Andreessen Horowitz’s total annual deals fell in 2022 — by 17% year-over-year — the firm still participated in 22 investment rounds in the consumer & retail sector. Its bets spanned a range of categories that serve the travel, food, beauty, and retail industries. 

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Planogram compliance and inventory management providers sell technology to track in-store shelf conditions. Solutions focus on planogram and merchandising compliance and in-stock levels. There are 5 primary data collection solutions: cameras, mobile scanning, shelf sensors, robots to monitor shelves, and autonomous drones.

Companies in this space also use software platforms to process data from external sources along with their own data to optimize pricing and assortment and forecast demand.

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Its portfolio includes several high-valued tech companies, such as Mindbody, Pluralsight, and Ping Identity.

Since the beginning of 2022, Vista Equity Partners has been involved in numerous transactions and has participated in multiple mega-rounds (deals worth $100M+). The firm has also taken several companies private at billion-dollar valuations.

Using CB Insights data, we mapped how Vista Equity Partners has spread its investments and acquisitions since 2022 across categories like cybersecurity, financial services, enterprise tech, and more.

CB Insights clients can dig deeper into all 21 deals listed above using this CB Insights platform search.

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Emerging use cases in retail could deliver time and cost savings across significant areas of operations like marketing, where companies spend nearly 14% of their budgets.

Here are 6 ways generative AI can automate tasks and scale critical work for brands and retailers:

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Consumer survey solution startups facilitate using multiple communication channels (such as text and video) for companies to survey consumers. Some solutions also offer on-demand customer surveying from networks of engaged consumers who want to share their opinions on trends and brand perception.

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This is pushing players across the food value chain — like grocery retailers, restaurants, and CPG brands — to increasingly rely on tech solutions to automate processes, improve traceability, and reduce food waste. In doing so, they can mitigate the risk of shortages and recalls, which negatively impact profitability.

In particular, AI is delivering impact across every stage of the value chain. AI-powered solutions are helping accelerate product development, reduce manufacturing downtime, better predict demand for products, monitor food freshness, and more.

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Accurate and engaging descriptions can boost conversion rates and reduce returns. More than 87% of online shoppers rank product descriptions as being very important in their purchase decisions, according to Salsify.

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This technology will become increasingly important as labor shortages and the rising volume of customer service requests from e-commerce push brands and retailers to improve customer satisfaction while keeping costs under control.

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Quickly scaling visual content creation will allow brands to target different markets and consumers with more relevant content, supporting personalization efforts.

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3D representations of physical goods can boost conversions by giving online shoppers a more accurate preview of the item they intend to buy. 3D assets could also be repurposed for augmented reality content, virtual goods, and digital twin products.

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Most companies in the virtual photoshoots space are focused on fashion, using virtual models for styling and envisioning clothing on different body types. AI-generated models save money by eliminating the need to hire external talent. 

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So what will it fetch?

In 2019, the suitcase maker was valued at $1.4B on $150M of trailing revenue — a healthy 9.3x multiple. This valuation assumed continued dramatic growth and a belief that a luggage maker could be positioned ultimately as a technology company.

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Traditional design processes in fashion are often tedious: it can take anywhere from 3 to 8 months for a style to reach production. Generative AI would speed up the creative process and reduce manual work for designers, while also saving costs on materials that would otherwise be used to produce physical samples.

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Now, it’s establishing itself as a tech provider — similar to the likes of Amazon — by launching high-margin, high-growth-rate tech businesses for the retail industry. This could change financial markets’ perception of the company’s growth potential and help it achieve a higher valuation than traditional grocery retail.

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Despite a slowdown in the rate of growth, e-commerce’s share of total retail sales remains higher than it was pre-pandemic — and associated revenues in the US are projected to keep rising. Funding to e-commerce enablement companies topped $11B last year as an increasing number of vendors entered the market.

Reflecting this growth, e-commerce tech stacks are becoming much more complex.

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Nowhere is that more visible than the Super Bowl, which has long been the advertiser’s golden opportunity to reach a broad audience of captivated US consumers. Last year’s event drew an estimated 112M TV viewers, and brands paid up to $7M for a 30-second ad slot.

To stand out from the pack, TV advertisers are turning to a range of emerging technologies to make ads that have the potential to go viral, deliver a strong return on ad spend (ROAS), and reach entirely new audiences. 

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We covered all of these developments and many more across the food & beverage space to help affected players make informed tech-buying decisions.

For example, grocery retailers focused on omnichannel enablement can discover relevant tech solutions in our omnichannel enablement market map for grocery leaders, determine which markets to prioritize with our corresponding MVP framework, and decide which companies are ideal for partnerships or investments using our market-specific ESP Vendor Rankings, including this one covering grocery microfulfillment. 

Our predictions for the upcoming year include:

• Companies will continue to invest in AI and robotics to increase customer engagement as well as address both labor shortages and increased labor costs. For example, these technologies will help fast food chains leverage automation to make kitchen operations more efficient and cost-effective.
• Restaurants, food & beverage brands, and grocery retailers will shift more of their focus toward managing costly food waste and meeting their climate goals. Expect these players to turn to tech such as food monitoring hardware, surplus food marketplaces, and more.
• To build more resilient food supply chains, farmers will likely continue to deploy easy-to-install precision agriculture tech, like farm management software, which improves farm efficiency at a relatively low capital cost.

To kick off 2023, we brought together our top food & beverage research in the curated list below.

GROCERY RETAIL TECH

• The Future of the Supermarket: How technology is making grocery shopping more personalized, efficient, and sustainable
• [Client Research] 157 companies helping grocery leaders adapt to the omnichannel shopper journey
• [Client Research] How grocery retailers should prioritize these 11 technologies supporting omnichannel enablement
• [Client Research] What are Walmart, Kroger, and Albertsons doing in microfulfillment?
• [Client Research] Analyzing Ocado’s growth strategy: How the grocery tech giant is shaping the future of the supermarket
• [Client Research] What this $37B grocery giant is doing to optimize its inventory management
• [Client Research] Tech Market Map Report: Supply Chain Optimization in Grocery
• [Client Research] MVP Technology Framework: Supply Chain Optimization for Grocery Retailers
• [Client Research] Analyzing Carrefour’s growth strategy: How the retailer is digitizing its operations to improve profitability

RESTAURANT TECH

• Unbundling McDonald’s: How the traditional fast food industry is being disrupted
• The Future of Fast Food: How robot chefs, virtual ordering, and autonomous delivery will feed us in 2030
• How restaurants can increase profitability and reduce food waste using robotic food preparation
• How restaurants can reduce the cost of R&D using AI tongues and social listening
• How restaurants can increase check size using conversational AI and AI-powered recommendation engines
• How restaurants can capture high-value customers using NFT loyalty programs
• How restaurant chains can use the metaverse to create a new digital channel for orders
• How restaurants can reduce reliance on gig workers using autonomous delivery
• [Client Research] 160 companies helping food service leaders to automate and digitize their restaurants
• [Client Research] Prioritizing the 12 technologies automating and digitizing the restaurant and food service industry

SUSTAINABILITY & FOOD WASTE MANAGEMENT

• [Client Research] 88 companies reducing food waste across the supply chain
• [Client Research] Analyzing Nestlé’s growth strategy: How the company is prioritizing health & sustainability across its portfolio
• [Client Research] Analyzing Danone’s growth strategy: How the CPG giant is creating a more sustainable food supply chain
• [Client Research] Analyzing PepsiCo’s growth strategy: How the CPG giant is improving supply chain sustainability and reducing emissions

FOOD & MEAL DELIVERY

• [Client Research] Analyzing DoorDash’s operational strategy: How the delivery leader is investing in local commerce
• [Client Research] 60+ early-stage companies reshaping food & meal delivery
• [Client Research] 40+ early-stage companies transforming food & beverage product development and distribution

AGTECH

• [Client Research] The Future of the Farm: How technology is making farms more connected, efficient, and sustainable
• [Client Research] 107 companies developing precision agriculture tech to enhance farm operations and environmental impact
• [Client Research] Prioritizing 12 precision agriculture technologies streamlining farm operations
• [Client Research] Analyzing John Deere’s growth strategy: How the American manufacturing giant is betting on agtech

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Retailers are facing last-mile pressures on all sides. Consumers have grown accustomed to the free and fast shipping options that giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba provide, while execution has grown increasingly expensive for retailers due to inflation, fuel costs, and labor shortages.  

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For example, those focused on reducing the cost of the last mile can discover relevant tech solutions in our last-mile market map, understand where delivery leaders like DoorDash are making strategic bets, and get an idea of what last-mile delivery might look like in 2030.

Our predictions for the upcoming year include:

• As retailers continue to invest in their own supply chain operations, we expect to see them increasingly experiment with new retail formats that position brick-and-mortar locations for distribution and fulfillment. Retailers that are early movers in supply chain investments could tap into B2B services as an additional revenue stream. 
• CPG brands will invest more heavily to scale their sustainability efforts — such as those related to production and waste management  — to meet previously set benchmarks, regulatory frameworks, and consumer demands. 
• With supply chain security top of mind, big tech companies will leverage their expansive data lakes to provide B2B offerings that make the supply chain more connected, efficient, and traceable.

To kick off 2023, we brought together our top supply chain & logistics research in the curated list below.

RETAIL

• [Client Research] Tech Market Map Report — Supply Chain Optimization In Retail
• Unbundling SHEIN: How fast fashion is being disrupted
• [Client Research] How American Eagle and Gap are entering the third-party logistics space
• [Client Research] Analyzing Walmart’s growth strategy: How the retail giant is building e-commerce and boosting profits
• [Client Research] Unbundling Sephora: How the beauty retail experience is being disrupted
• [Client Research] Analyzing Alibaba’s growth strategy: How the tech giant is reimagining retail to drive its global ambitions
• [Client Research] Market Trend Report: Delivery Management Software for Retailers

FOOD & GROCERY

• [Client Research] Tech Market Map Report: Supply Chain Optimization in Grocery
• [Client Research] MVP Technology Framework: Supply Chain Optimization for Grocery Retailers
• The Future of the Supermarket: How technology is making grocery shopping more personalized, efficient, and sustainable
• [Client Research] 40+ early-stage companies transforming food & beverage product development and distribution
• [Client Research] Analyzing Carrefour’s growth strategy: How the retailer is digitizing its operations to improve profitability
• [Client Research] What this $37B grocery giant is doing to optimize its inventory management
• [Client Research] Analyzing Ocado’s growth strategy: How the grocery tech giant is shaping the future of the supermarket
• [Client Research] What are Walmart, Kroger, and Albertsons doing in microfulfillment?
• The Future of Fast Food: How robot chefs, virtual ordering, and autonomous delivery will feed us in 2030

SUSTAINABILITY

• [Client Research] Analyzing PepsiCo’s growth strategy: How the CPG giant is improving supply chain sustainability and reducing emissions
• [Client Research] Tech Market Map Report: Sustainability in the Supply Chain for Retailers
• [Client Research] 13 technologies making the supply chain more sustainable — and the ones that retailers should prioritize now
• [Client Research] 107 companies helping advanced manufacturers make their operations more sustainable
• [Client Research] 88 companies reducing food waste across the supply chain
• [Client Research] Analyzing Nestlé’s growth strategy: How the company is prioritizing health & sustainability across its portfolio
• [Client Research] Analyzing Danone’s Growth Strategy: How the CPG giant is creating a more sustainable food supply chain
• [Client Research] Analyzing Unilever’s growth strategy: How the CPG giant is doubling down on sustainability and digital transformation

LAST-MILE FULFILLMENT 

• The Future of Last-Mile Delivery: How technology is tackling the complexity and cost of fulfillment
• [Client Research] 60+ early-stage companies reshaping food & meal delivery
• [Client Research] 218 companies helping retail leaders make last-mile operations faster, cheaper, and more efficient
• [Client Research] Analyzing DoorDash’s operational strategy: How the delivery leader is investing in local commerce
• How restaurants can reduce reliance on gig workers using autonomous delivery

FLEET & FREIGHT MANAGEMENT

• [Client Research] Unbundling Maersk: How one of the world’s largest shipping companies is being disrupted
• [Client Research] The Future of the Fleet: How technology is making transporting freight more efficient and sustainable
• [Client Research] Tech Market Map Report: Fleet & Freight Optimization in Retail
• [Client Research] MVP Technology Framework: Fleet & Freight Optimization for Retail
• [Client Research] Analyzing Amazon’s growth strategy: How the tech giant is shaping the future of transportation and logistics
• [Client Research] Analyzing Ryder’s growth strategy: How the transportation giant is becoming a leader in supply chain & logistics tech 

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