#SPARKBOX VENTURES TRIAL#

The team started Sparkbox after seeing an opportunity to innovate in a sector that still relies heavily on spreadsheets, guess work and gut feelings to make important commercial decisions.Ĭolin Greene, an operational partner at the VC, who was formerly Apple’s director of US Consumer Retail, will also join Sparkbox's board. The company was co-founded by Forbes 30 Under 30 inductees Lindsay Fisher and Matthew Wong, and Kevin Blackmore, who prior to Sparkbox was vice president of Customer Insights at Best Buy and a retail analytics partner at Accenture.Ĭollectively, the founding team has 50 years of global retail experience, including previous work with Arcadia and The Very Group. The business will use Praetura Ventures' investment to double its team and onboard further fashion, home and seasonal retailers. Wide reports are that fashion alone is responsible for up to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions. Sparkbox's approach to data also has the potential to aid brand sustainability goals by preventing retailers from over ordering stock.

#SPARKBOX VENTURES TRIAL#

In a recent trial with a £500m plus fashion retailer, Sparkbox improved cash margin on markdowns by 34 per cent and paid back its client’s investment in just 34 days. Launched in 2019, Sparkbox has seen significant traction in the market to date. Sparkbox, which is trusted by River Island and, allows retailers to forecast demand, optimise their pricing and promotions and plan inventory to reduce waste and the need for big discounts. Sparkbox uses AI and in-depth data to help big brand merchandising teams make better stock buying and pricing decisions. For more on that venture, read “The rise of the social enterprise”.Praetura Ventures has invested £1.5m into a Manchester-based AI start-up. It went to co-founders of the online teacher development program 1 Million Teachers: Hakeem Subair, MMIE’17 Rizma Butt, MMIE’17 and Eric Zhang, MMIE’18. The online format extended the competition’s reach with participants and attendees from four continents.Īlso new this year: a $5,000 People’s Choice award. While the competition is usually held in Toronto, this year’s event was virtual due to COVID. Typical customers do around £700 million (CDN$1.2 billion) in annual sales.īoth Barr and Fisher say they appreciate UPStart’s support and judges’ advice. Sparkbox works with both online and bricks-and-mortar retailers in Europe. Sparkbox increased a retailer’s profit per unit sold by 85 per cent in a recent pilot, she says. But with artificial intelligence, “we can help them understand the trends in real time and use data to drive their decisions,” says Fisher. The company (which won $25,000 at UPstart) uses machine learning and natural language processing to help fashion retailers and seasonal businesses optimize pricing.įashion shops traditionally rely on previous year’s sales to set prices. Price is rightįisher worked at Target before moving to England where she launched Sparkbox over two years ago. So, “we see a lot of potential to grow,” Barr says. The ready-to-drink protein category is expected to see annual compound growth of eight per cent from 2020 to 2027. “Instead of a coffee and a donut or muffin, grab a Brüst for a healthier mid-day snack,” he explains.īrüst is sold online and in Canadian grocery stores. The result is Brüst, a protein-packed cold-brew coffee to help people fuel up on the go. Why not combine the two into a tasty beverage? Sometimes they’d have a shake in one hand and coffee in the other. Barr, a triathlete who worked in beverage marketing at Nestlé, and Gupta, a competitive squash player, both regularly drank protein shakes after a workout. The annual competition is hosted by Smith’s Centre for Business Venturing and Queen’s Venture Network.īrüst, which took home $30,000, was started in 2018 by Barr and Amar Gupta. Alumni judges could split the prize money among as many teams as they wished.

They were among eight teams that pitched their businesses. Her company, Sparkbox, is based in England.īoth earned a share of $55,000 in funding at the UPstart Venture Challenge in December. Lindsay Fisher, BCom’12, saw how artificial intelligence can help fashion retailers earn higher profits. Josh Barr, BCom’10, set out to make a tastier protein drink as co-founder of Brüst Beverage Company in Toronto. The winners of the UPstart Venture Challenge at Smith can attest to that. These are the ingredients that take businesses from startup to success.

Sparkbox ventures