E-commerce marketing · Industry brief

Azoma, an agentic commerce optimization platform, secured an undisclosed investment from dunnhumby ventures to accelerate its product roadmap. The funding will help Azoma serve clients including L'Oréal, Unilever, and Mars by improving how AI shopping agents discover and recommend products for retailers and consumer brands. dunnhumby ventures head Leo Nagdas joined Azoma's board as an advisor. According to Azoma's analysis, AI shopping assistants draw product recommendations largely from sources brands do not own, with earned or social media accounting for 86.5% of Alexa for Shopping's citations and 76% of Walmart Sparky's recommendations, highlighting a data visibility gap the investment aims to address in the emerging agentic commerce sector.

Manchester-based payments company Ryft secured a £20 million Series B funding round led by Gresham House Ventures, bringing total capital raised to approximately £27 million. The investment will support Ryft's expansion into European and US markets, with the company having applied for a full EU license from the Malta Financial Services Authority to passport services across the European Economic Area. Founded in 2021, Ryft provides payment solutions designed for multi-party commerce including marketplaces, platforms, and multi-location businesses, currently serving over 6,500 customers including Epos Now and Chaiwalla, with existing customers reportedly compounding volumes over 100% annually on the platform.