Retail Innovation Network aims to bring together early-stage startups, enterprise technology partners, and venture investors

dunnhumby, the global leader in Customer Data Science, along with its corporate venture capital arm, dunnhumby ventures, announced the launch of its Retail Innovation Network. This newly created program provides a unique platform for early-stage startups, enterprise partners, and investors in Retail and Consumer Goods technology sectors, to cultivate strategic alliances across the ecosystem.

“By bringing together the collective ingenuity of startups, best practices of scaled technology partners, and market intelligence and capital of industry investors, we can establish a new gold standard for faster and more integrated ecosystem-led problem solving.”

dunnhumby ventures’ Retail Innovation Network serves as a groundbreaking initiative to propel innovation in the retail ecosystem by fostering collaboration and co-development among industry stakeholders.

“The Retail Innovation Network has two overarching goals: (i) to collaboratively break down barriers to innovation that exist in our ecosystem, and (ii) provide its members with direct access to decades of industry expertise and connectivity built across dunnhumby, dunnhumby ventures, and its partner ecosystem,” said Leo Nagdas, Head of Corporate Development and dunnhumby Ventures at dunnhumby. “By bringing together the collective ingenuity of startups, best practices of scaled technology partners, and market intelligence and capital of industry investors, we can establish a new gold standard for faster and more integrated ecosystem-led problem solving.”

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dunnhumby invites startups, established enterprises, and venture investors to express interest through dunnhumby ventures’ dedicated submissions site. Network membership will be complimentary and assessed on a rolling basis, with successful applicants receiving an opportunity to participate in invitation-only online and in-person events, access dunnhumby’s expert network, and gain other exclusive industry resources. Seed and early-stage businesses will also benefit from the ability to apply for direct funding from dunnhumby ventures and its venture capital investment partners.

Dave Clements, Chief Strategy Officer added, “Over the last decade we have built a strong network of leading retailers that work with dunnhumby and benefit from shared learnings and cooperation on common topics. Expanding this to a Retail Innovation Network is a natural next step as we connect and source new innovations that help businesses put the Customer First by utilizing data, science, AI across the world. Through a mix of virtual and in-person meetings we are excited to connect our deep retail expertise with the latest cutting-edge technologies and AI, ultimately with the goal to help accelerate value creation for our Retail Network.”

The inaugural invitation-only meeting for program members is planned to take place in Bentonville, Arkansas in summer 2024.

“We are proud to launch this pioneering program at such an important center here in Bentonville,” said Vincent Diguet, Global Managing Director at dunnhumby. “This initiative continues our commitment to innovation, the removal of technology and data siloes, better integrated workflows, and exceptional customer experiences that shape the future of retail. We are excited to welcome like-minded innovators to join us.”