Datasembly grabs $16M to give brick-and-mortar retail pricing a big data intel boost
Summary
But as rampant inflation wreaks havoc on any kind of price stability for consumers, its not quite game over, either.Datasembly a startup based in the Virginia suburbs of DC that provides retailers and CPG companies with big data-based analytics on product pricing and product promotions as well as insights into assortment has raised $16 million in funding.The round is a Series B and is being led by Noro-Moseley Partners an Atlanta VC that focuses on backing tech startups out of the Southeast of the U.S. with participation from Grotech Ventures, Topmark Partners and Staley Capital. We collect at a massive scale from the public web, focusing on price, promotion and assortment.He noted that retailers and brands have always focused on gathering this kind of information, but in the past it might have been teams of individuals tracking other physical stores, eventually adding a small selection of online stores into the mix.That has changed not just because so much more shopping is now done online, he said.The inflationary period were in, combined with the economic effects of the pandemic and continuing supply chain issues have all caused unprecedented volatility, he said. It works with hundreds of partners (in its phrasing), including some 230 retailers like Target, Walgreens and Starbucks, and brands and organizations like General Mills, Nestl\xe9s Purina and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.Retailers may be the most obvious category, but the others are just as hungry for this kind of data. Reich said that was because retailers and brands still have their own individual strategies that they might follow: they may have different goals on margins; or they might want to, say, intentionally be more competitive (cheaper) on specific items to lure shoppers to build bigger overall baskets.Whatever the aim, those businesses know they need data to understand better what to do next.CPGs and retailers need comprehensive, cost-effective, real-time pricing and product availability data, said John Ale, a general partner at Noro-Moseley Partners, in a statement. As its customers continue to fight inflation and weather supply chain issues, Datasembly is instrumental in empowering effective pricing, promotion and assortment decisions.