Marc Lore-backed ‘conversational commerce’ startup Wizard raises $50M Series A from NEA –

Marc Lore, who earlier this year stepped down from his role as Walmart’s head of U.S. e-commerce, is now backing a new startup in the e-commerce space called Wizard. Florence, Lore and Accel’s Sameer Gandhi have board seats alongside Wizard’s co-founder and CEO Melissa Bridgeford. “What we’ve found is a combination of automation and human touch really provides the optimal experience for users, while also building a powerful technology on the backend that’s built to scale. An earlier version of the Stylust website listed clients including Laughing Glass Cocktails, Desolas Mezcal, Pinhook Bourbon, Marsh House Rum and Neft Vodkas. The startup plans to use the funds to hire in areas like AI, machine learning and natural language processing, as well as in non-tech roles, like sales, finance, and operations.