Major brands and retailers like Olaplex, Saucony, Murad (a Unilever brand), Wine Enthusiast, Heyday Skincare, and NEST New York are joining the wave of brands creating personalized shopper experiences powered by Humankind.

Humankind, a digital concierge and conversational commerce platform for e-commerce brands, has officially closed its seed stage fundraising round co-led by High Alpha Capital and Strand Equity for $4.2 million. Widespread industry support for customer experience enhancing technology driven by personalized shopping recommendations led to the successful close of their seed stage fundraising round. The platform enables retailers to connect product experts with online shoppers through scalable, 1:1 human-led conversations via SMS.

Humankind is led by Los Angeles-based Co-Founder and CEO David Weissman, an experienced e-commerce entrepreneur and former leader at Target, Dermstore and GSI Commerce. With over 23 years of e-commerce experience, Weissman has consulted for some of the world’s leading brands, including Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Adidas, Quicksilver, Beautycounter and Petsmart.

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Weissman shared, “Our technology is the first explicit customer experience and personalization enhancement product to hit the market like this. We’ve not only seen it drive enormous KPI lift, and shoppers LOVE it. Brand loyalty is at its highest through great experiences and conversational commerce through Humankind is a great experience every single time.”.

Andrea Moore, SVP of digital, ecommerce, and consumer insights with NEST New York says, “Humankind truly puts the customer front and center. The technology has allowed NEST New York to provide a premium, concierge-like shopping experience that our customers love engaging with. This is the level of personalization and attention that today’s shoppers are increasingly demanding.”

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