Using CB Insights data, we dug into the retail tech and innovation landscape in Q1’23, including:

1. The continued decline in retail tech funding in Q1’23, to its lowest level since Q2’16
2. Early-stage deal strength in retail, and where the money is going
3. A steady quarter for exits, with 9 IPOs and a slight uptick in M&A activity
   
4. The handful of mega-rounds that buoyed food & meal delivery funding
5. The 11% quarter-over-quarter increase in US funding
   

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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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Last week, the retail giant sold Bonobos for $75M, a 76% markdown from the $310M Walmart paid for the men’s fashion brand in 2017.

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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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Over its 20+ year history, the China-based company has ventured into more and more industries, including cloud computing, healthcare, travel, and entertainment, among others — growing influential enough to attract intense scrutiny from a tech-wary Chinese government in recent years. And in March 2023, Alibaba announced it would split its sprawling business empire into 6 separate units.

At least 3 of these new units will focus on Alibaba’s core retail business. And they’re likely to remain committed to the behemoth’s vision for “New Retail” — a long-held aim to integrate Alibaba’s advanced e-commerce data and analytics into offline commerce to create a seamless omnichannel experience.

Using CB Insights data, we uncovered 5 of Alibaba’s most important strategic priorities in retail which will remain top-of-mind even as the company restructures. We then categorized companies by their business relationships with Alibaba across these priorities.

• Cross-border commerce
• E-commerce
• Express logistics
• Omnichannel retail
• Online grocery

This graphic includes investments, acquisitions, and business relationships for Alibaba Group, Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, and Tmall. These designations are not exhaustive of Alibaba’s investment and partnership activity in the analyzed period.

Cross-border commerce

Alibaba has formed several strategic partnerships via its logistics arm, Cainiao, to reach shoppers outside of China (as well as to connect foreign brands with Chinese customers). The company is particularly focused on less-mature markets where it can capture new growth.

It has partnered to enable cross-border logistics and shipping to South America (Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings), Japan (SGH Global Japan), Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa (Saudia Cargo). 

Alibaba has also formed smaller-scale partnerships with organizations like the Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Co. with the goal of helping small businesses extend their reach outside of China.

E-commerce

Alibaba’s investments in e-commerce platforms have focused on growing its reach in high-growth markets and in key product categories.

For instance, over the last 2 years, the retailer increased its stakes in Turkey-based online fashion marketplace Trendyol as well as in Singapore-based mass online marketplace Lazada. In addition to the potential for growth in Singapore, Lazada reaches even further across the competitive Southeast Asian retail landscape. Alibaba wants to extend the marketplace’s reach into Europe and other new markets as well. 

Alibaba’s investments also signal that it’s doubling down on growing categories. Its investment in online luxury marketplace Farfetch in November 2020 points to the importance of luxury shoppers and products in Asia. The deal included not only a $300M investment in Farfetch but also a $250M stake in a new joint venture called Farfetch China, both investments were in partnership with the Swiss luxury holding company Richemont. 

Express logistics

In recent years, Alibaba has increased its ownership stakes in the biggest express logistics companies in China. The companies offer fast logistics and delivery capabilities and have grown dramatically as a result of an increase in the use of e-commerce across China. 

Notably, the company fully acquired China-based logistics provider ALOG in August 2020. ALOG had been the main warehouse management provider for Tmall Mart, Alibaba’s online supermarket. 

Omnichannel retail

Alibaba continues to focus on grocery as a key building block for its store footprint and New Retail online-to-offline strategy. 

Since 2016, Alibaba has run its high-tech supermarket Freshippo, which deploys tech like electronic shelf labels, facial recognition, and robotics to enable more efficient shopping in stores as well as faster delivery. The chain now has nearly 300 locations.

Alibaba’s investments in recent years have added to its physical grocery footprint, with the aim to extend New Retail capabilities. The company’s biggest move in the sector was a $3.6B investment in Sun Art, one of the largest mass merchandiser and supermarket chains in China, in October 2020. The deal added nearly 500 stores to Alibaba’s brick-and-mortar network. Since then, Alibaba also led a $100M round for China-based T11 Food Market. 

Online grocery

Alibaba’s online grocery initiatives offer the company more ways to make New Retail connections between stores and online. They also enable the company to take advantage of the growth in online grocery, which expanded in China during the pandemic.

Its investments have reached across the grocery value chain. For instance, in February 2021, Alibaba took a minority stake in Caihuasuan, which builds pieces of the fresh food supply chain. 

Alibaba also invested 4 times in the group grocery buying platform Nice Tuan, which has since dissolved. But Alibaba’s attention to the company points to its interest in new online models like group buying, which has caught fire in the fast-growing lower-tier cities in China (as well as in India, South America, and elsewhere) where Alibaba is looking for growth.

A social commerce partnership may prove most fruitful for Alibaba’s online grocery ambitions. In August 2022, Alibaba’s online grocery platform Ele.me launched a presence on Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok (also owned by ByteDance). Douyin users can place grocery and restaurant orders directly via Ele.me on the video platform.

Other

Beyond these 5 strategic focus areas, Alibaba has made noteworthy investments, partnerships, and acquisitions across a range of other categories.

E-commerce enablement: In July 2020, Alibaba invested in the Australia-based cross-border payments processor Airwallex. Then in March 2021, the company invested $30M in China-based Leyan Tech, which makes AI-powered e-commerce customer service software. 

Media & content: Alibaba has made a few investments that indicate interest in advanced e-commerce content and the metaverse. In November 2021, the company backed a Series A round to China-based DGene, which makes mixed reality content for several industries, including AI-generated actors for film and TV, as well as digital influencers. Then in March 2022, Alibaba participated in a $60M Series C round for the mixed reality equipment and tech company Nreal, which is based in China. 

Sustainability: Sustainability has come into focus for Alibaba as it grows in importance for Chinese consumers as well as for the Chinese government. Along with a 2020 investment in Hong Kong-based green packaging developer Ecoinno, Alibaba also formed a “Waste Free World” partnership with Unilever in 2021. The companies designed machines that use AI to identify types of plastic and sort them to be recycled. Users get Unilever coupons and rewards on Alibaba’s payments platform AliPay.

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While resale stands as a new revenue opportunity for brands, they are running into a number of challenges when it comes to launching their own resale operations. For one, the market is becoming much more fragmented and specialized. Additionally, logistics, shipping, and critical capabilities like quality control and fraud management are also expensive to scale and implement.

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While lots of retailers are currently struggling to figure out last-mile logistics, players who have been investing in the space for a while are moving their focus to areas like the middle mile (the leg before goods reach fulfillment centers) and intralogistics (the movement of goods within fulfillment centers).

Seeing an opportunity, Amazon is pairing its AWS cloud computing capabilities with extensive e-commerce logistics to create a suite of supply chain offerings for small to midsize businesses. It has even been extending these services beyond its marketplace clients with solutions like “Buy with Prime” which allows brands to offer Prime’s delivery speed, package tracking, and return logistics on their own e-commerce sites.

Doing so not only creates additional revenue for Amazon but also helps it optimize its own supply chains with fuller freight loads and more efficient operations. 

In this report, we break down Amazon’s strategy in the supply chain across 3 key takeaways: 

• Amazon is automating intralogistics. With Amazon’s enormous warehouse footprint, a dizzying number of offered products, and millions of packages shipped every week, automating intralogistics is key to driving e-commerce profitability for the tech giant. 
• Amazon wants to revitalize the middle mile. Amazon has been ramping up its middle mile capabilities with new products and investments in freight management and air cargo. In doing so, the tech giant is looking to capitalize on an often overlooked leg of the supply chain. 
• Amazon is betting on sustainable mobility. Amazon has taken some big swings in the electric vehicle market, striking deals to purchase fleets of vehicles and investing billions of dollars. 

Amazon is automating intralogistics

Intralogistics involves the movement of information and goods within individual fulfillment or distribution centers. 

A key enabler of Amazon Prime’s quick delivery speed is the company’s extensive network of fulfillment centers. And with over 1,100 centers in the US alone and a reportedly extremely high employee turnover rate in warehouses, Amazon is keen to automate intralogistics as much as possible. 

Amazon is one of the top players for supply chain patents, with many of its filings related to automating intralogistics processes like mapping the footprints of fulfillment centers for efficiency or detecting inventory levels.

In 2022, the tech giant introduced new intralogistics robots named Sparrow and Cardinal. Currently, these robots are designed to sort packages, move goods throughout the fulfillment center, and pick goods of different shapes, sizes, and materials (an area existing picking robots have difficulty with). 

Amazon has also made moves outside of its internal robotics development, such as: 

• Acquiring intralogistics robot maker Cloostermans in Q3’22 to boost its robot research and deployment. 
• Announcing its warehouse & distribution network in Q3’22. This is a pay-as-you-go service offering inventory management within Amazon fulfillment centers and automated distribution for sellers.
• Expanding its warehouse footprint by investing in smaller fulfillment centers — situated near major population centers and stocked with in-demand items — to enable same-day deliveries for some of its goods. 

While Amazon has been ramping up its offerings and investments in this space over the last few years, the tech giant has recently conducted the largest layoff in its history and has closed or abandoned plans for dozens of warehouses. Given the increased focus on cost control, the success of its automation bets could be more important than ever.

Amazon wants to revitalize the middle mile

The middle mile is the leg of the supply chain where goods are brought from distribution centers to fulfillment centers. This leg can include ocean, air, and ground freight. While the middle mile has traditionally been outsourced, it has recently received more attention as squeezed supply chains have made headlines for costing retailers millions of dollars in profit. 

A successful middle mile is also crucial to last-mile operations to ensure fulfillment centers have goods in time to meet the ever-shorter delivery timeframes promised to customers.

Amazon has a distinct advantage in providing middle-mile services to retailers as it has already invested heavily in its own freight technology to make Prime shipping possible. Also, with Amazon Web Services’ cloud computing capabilities, the tech giant has high visibility into logistics — a key component of successful middle-mile operations. 

Building on this, Amazon offers Amazon Freight which allows retailers to book space on its freight trucks for thousands of routes across the US. Amazon uses algorithms to determine which vehicles are operating at LTL (less than load) to offer discounted shipping rates to retailers. 

Amazon has also made strategic moves with air cargo. Previously, the e-commerce retailer relied entirely on contracts with UPS and FedEx. But in the last few years, Amazon began to shift its strategy and in 2021 opened a $1.5B air hub in Kentucky to have more ownership over its middle mile. 

Additionally, Amazon has struck several deals for minority stake investments and strategic partnerships in this area, including: 

• A minority stake in Air Transport Services Group, an aircraft leasing and air cargo transport provider, in Q2’21
• A minority stake in Hawaiian Airlines to operate 10 airbus freight plans starting in fall 2023
• A partnership with Azul Cargo Express in Q4’22 to expand its delivery reach in Brazil
• A partnership with India-based Quikjet Cargo in Q1’23 to expand its reach in India

Amazon has been operating these planes under the brand Amazon Air which has expanded rapidly since its inception in 2015. With air cargo’s high barrier to entry both from a regulatory and capital standpoint, expect Amazon to begin creating additional revenue streams from its investments similar to what it has done with Amazon Freight. 

Amazon is betting on sustainable mobility

Fuel costs account for around 15% of last-mile expenses and volatile fuel prices can sometimes push this proportion even higher. However, it’s estimated that using electric last-mile vehicles can reduce fuel costs by more than half — attracting interest from big fleet operators. 

Amazon (which has a 2040 net-zero emissions goal) has already made significant moves to electrify its delivery fleet and has made some big bets on sustainable mobility, including: 

• Backing California-based EV maker Rivian and pledging to order 100,000 delivery vehicles from the company. Amazon has reportedly delivered 10M+ packages with Rivian EVs.
  
• A commitment to deploy 10,000 electric delivery vehicles in India and entering into partnerships with India-based companies (Tata Motors, Mahindra Electric, Magenta Mobility, and TVS Motor) to produce those EVs. 
• Amazon is also still wanting to deploy battery-powered delivery drones under its Prime Air program, which has already made some test deliveries in California and Texas. However, this division has been heavily affected by the Q1’23 layoffs. 

Source: Amazon

With Amazon shipping well over a million packages a day, meaningful progress toward sustainable mobility could have a big impact. However, even with its carbon reduction efforts, Amazon’s total emissions grew by 18% in 2021 as demand for its services went up — signaling that the company will need to make additional investments in making its supply chain more sustainable to hit its net-zero goal by 2040.

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Many of this year’s winners focus on boosting the efficiency of retail operations across channels. To this end, AI is being deployed by winners across categories, to automate everything from inventory forecasting and management to counterfeit tracking. Additionally, platforms that integrate tech stacks — whether in stores or for digital selling — are gaining traction in developed as well as emerging markets. 

Other companies in this year’s winning cohort help retailers create more engaging shopping experiences, via tools like chat commerce, shoppable video, and NFTs. Sustainable shopping solutions for both consumers and retailers make a notable appearance as well.

Using the CB Insights platform, our research team picked these 100 private market vendors from a pool of over 7K companies, including applicants and nominees. 

The list includes early- and mid-stage startups driving innovation across store tech, e-commerce, loyalty & rewards, supply chain & logistics, and digital engagement. They were chosen based on factors including funding, proprietary Mosaic scores, market potential, business relationships, investor profile, news sentiment analysis, competitive landscape, team strength, and tech novelty. The research team also reviewed hundreds of Analyst Briefings submitted by applicants.

Clients can access the entire Retail Tech 100 list and interactive Collection here. (If you don’t have a CB Insights login, create one here.)

Companies are categorized by their primary focus area and client base. Categories in the market map are not mutually exclusive. Please click to enlarge.

Want to be considered for future rankings? Fill out this initial application form (it’ll take no more than a few minutes). If selected, you’ll be asked to complete our Analyst Briefing Survey so that our analysts can better understand your products, customers, and market traction.

RETAIL TECH 100 COHORT HIGHLIGHTS

Overall funding & valuation trends: The cohort has raised nearly $5B across more than 250 equity deals since 2019 (as of 3/2/23). In 2022 alone, companies on the list raised more than $3.1B across 106 deals. This year’s list features 3 unicorns: self-checkout company Mashgin, delivery management platform Veho, and omnichannel operations and loyalty tool Swiftly. 

Funding leaders: Cart.com, which makes end-to-end e-commerce technology, is the most well-funded company on the list, with $323M in total equity funding. Delivery management unicorn Veho comes in second with $299M in funding. New unicorn Swiftly rounds out the top 3 with $216M in total equity funding.

Global reach: This year’s winners come from 20 different countries. Fifty-six of the selected companies (56%) are headquartered in the US. The United Kingdom comes in second with 6 (6%) and China and Australia are tied for third with 5 companies (5%) each. 

Notably, 12 companies on the list (12%) represent emerging market economies. Local companies in these markets are increasingly looking to deploy tech to make fragmented and informal retail processes more efficient and trackable.

Some of the companies in these geographies — like Majoo (Indonesia) and Dot (India) — offer omnichannel retail operations platforms that help retailers digitize operations across in-store and online channels. Other solutions — such as Khazenly (Egypt) — are focused on delivery management.

Top investors: Insight Partners is the top investor in this year’s list. It has invested in 8 of this year’s winners since 2019, including 3D digital content producer and manager nfinite, food traceability solution iFoodDS, and delivery management platform Shipium. Tiger Global is close behind with 7 companies, followed by Accel with 5.

Digital content and engagement rules: The biggest category for this year’s list is digital shopper engagement, which has 16 companies (16%). The companies in this category allow retailers to connect with shoppers across platforms and channels, with a focus on personalization and loyalty. 

For instance, Charles and Postscript both make chat commerce platforms that enable marketing and checkout via text. Meanwhile, Arianee, METAV.RS, and Novel help brands develop NFTs and use Web3 tools to boost loyalty and authenticate their products. 

Automation is driving efficiency: Automation solutions reach across categories on this year’s list as retailers and brands look for tools to make their operations faster and smarter. 

Alloy, for instance, makes a platform to connect e-commerce teams’ apps and automate tasks. Several other companies build supply chain integration platforms that aggregate tools and use AI to optimize decision-making. Meanwhile, Vue.ai, Lily AI, and Pixyle use AI to automate product tagging and broader catalog management online, which can ultimately boost the accuracy of shoppers’ searches and drive more buying. 

Early-stage innovation: More than half of the winners in this year’s cohort are early-stage companies (seed/angel or Series A). These companies are developing innovative solutions to promote more specialized and personalized shopping experiences.

For example, EQL’s e-commerce platform is specialized for “hype commerce,” or limited-time drops for hot products. EON creates digital IDs (or digital twins) to make apparel traceable. And Nibble Technology uses AI and chat commerce to inject negotiation into e-commerce shopping.

What we didn’t find: Despite retailers’ acute challenges in a few areas — namely loss prevention and employee empowerment — our research turned up fewer-than-expected earlier-stage companies solving these problems in new ways. 

However, a few tools still stood out in these areas. For example, Spot’s AI-powered video intelligence system helps retailers track everything from shoplifting to employee issues. Meanwhile, SparkPlug’s platform helps retailers reward employees in a tough labor market through the gamification of tasks.

THE RETAIL TECH 100 CLASS OF 2022: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

The 2022 Retail Tech 100 winners have accomplished a great deal since March 2022. Together, they have seen:

• Over $2.5B in equity funding across 25+ deals (as of 3/2/23)
• 10 mega-rounds (deals worth $100M+), including a $300M round to cross-border payments company Xendit
• 2 exits: 1 merger and 1 acquisition
• 1 new entrant to the $1B+ unicorn club

If you want to learn more about the Retail Tech 100 Class of 2022, check out the full list of previous winners.

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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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Brands, retailers, and individual sellers around the globe are increasingly using technology to enable full shopping experiences on social media platforms. The approach is projected to drive $1T+ in sales by 2025, according to Accenture — up 2x from 2021. 

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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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Clients can download our scorecard to quickly compare the below vendors. To read the interview transcripts for each solution, reserve your Yardstiq subscription here.

• Feedzai
• Forter
• SEON Technologies
• Sift
• Signifyd

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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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E-commerce fulfillment & logistics providers help retailers quickly and easily fulfill online orders through a suite of offerings. Services can include access to fulfillment centers to enable distributed inventory, express shipping, order and inventory management, and reporting and analytics dashboards.

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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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However, even with quarterly revenue growth in the double digits, the company is facing increasing profitability challenges. And the number of Amazon Prime members in the US reportedly fell to 168M last year from 170M in 2021 — the first drop since the program’s launch. 

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As Affirm looks to enhance its core BNPL offering — and drive profitability and new growth — the company has forged hundreds of partnerships, invested in a handful of companies, and made 2 acquisitions over the last 3 years.

For example, the BNPL leader has deepened its partnerships with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Amazon, reducing its reliance on Peloton — historically one of Affirm’s most important partners. Meanwhile, the company has grown its presence in new retail verticals and industries like travel. And its made strategic relationships, including the December 2020 acquisition of Canada-based BNPL provider PayBright, to expand beyond the US into Canada.

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