RetailReady raised $3.3M in seed funding to prevent shipping errors
RetailReady, a Y Combinator graduate leveraging AI to help shippers and providers reduce fees for non-compliant shipments to major retailers, recently raised $3.3M in seed funding to grow its team and develop its product, which aims to optimize warehouse packaging compliance processes.
RetailReady, a Y Combinator winter 2024 cohort graduate, leverages two different AI systems to target the $40 billion compliance market to help shippers and providers reduce the fees they incur for shipping incorrectly packaged items to retailers like Walmart and Target.
Warehouse workers packing and shipping items to retailers often have to reference “phone book-sized” paper-based manuals for instructions on packing and shipping items. Typically, brands can pay more than 3% of their gross invoice revenue in chargebacks, the fees incurred by non-compliant shipments received by retailers. Additionally, verifying shipment compliance often involves printed routing guides and doubles the labor required for 10 to 12% of all orders.
To address these challenges, RetailReady is working to replace the paper-based manuals with a digital interface that aids workers in labeling each shippable package correctly, automates error detection for retailers, and delivers compliance information to brands. An upcoming computer vision module will analyze pictures of packaged orders, ensuring compliance. RetailReady claims it is onboarding six new customers just two months after launch.
RetailReady recently closed a $3.3 million seed funding round led by Wischoff Ventures. Investors who participated in the round include 640 Oxford, Lombardstreet Ventures, Duke Capital Partners, Y Combinator, Matt Silver, Jacob Boudreau, and Scale Angel Fund. The company has stated it will use the raised capital to grow its team and underpin its product and technology development.
