Please welcome Augmodo, the spatial computing platform for retail and commerce

Lerer Hippeau
Lerer Hippeau

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Meet Augmodo, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.

HQ: Seattle, WA

Founder: Ross Finman

The problem: Modern retail continues to evolve, but technology has not kept up with trends and needs for retailers, brands, associates, and customers. In the years since the pandemic, especially, we’ve seen how easily supply chains and stock planning can be disrupted, to the great frustration of all parties. Retailers rely on their associates for successful floor, inventory, and shopper management, but they’re tasked with too many responsibilities to excel in all areas. In addition to being the first and often the only touchpoint for customers as they offer help, guidance, and recommendations, associates are tasked with myriad other responsibilities, including inventory assessment, restocking shelves, filling ecommerce orders, and updating promotions, among others. Associates, especially, need a tech-enabled assistant to help, and a viable approach hasn’t existed to date. Brands are similarly shooting blind when it comes to deploying product across stores and tracking sales and performance — they, too, need more insight into and control over how they’re being represented in the field.

Augmodo’s solution: Augmodo enables real-time inventory and task tracking through its SmartBadge wearable devices. These proprietary devices are powered by a spatial AI assistant for store associates, which can recommend actions and tasks to increase efficiencies, including restocking shelves, placing orders, and improving overall compliance. This saves time for stores and improves retailer, associate, brand, and shopper experiences. Using a camera and cutting-edge spatial technology, the SmartBadge creates live 3D store maps to build better, more accurate shelf inventory and produce planograms which are updated dozens of times a day, allowing retail associates to allocate their time more efficiently. In addition to its wearable devices, Augmodo offers stores an analytics platform called SpatialView, which serves as a single source of truth that can provide retail executives and brand partners real-time visibility into shelf conditions, cutting down on physical travel and in-person inspection.

Origin story: In 2022, Ross and his wife were forced to drive roughly 100 miles in and around the Seattle area in order to find shelves stocked with baby formula. As Ross has put it, halfway through that drive, he had the idea for a solution that would help address inventory problems. As Ross developed the idea, he realized that inventory was just the start and that there was a range of problems that could be addressed by leveraging advancements in AI and spatial computing and bringing them into retail environments. Applying his deep knowledge of mapping and augmented reality, Ross, who did graduate work in robotics at MIT, created an AI-powered system that has the potential to transform the way retail operates. Ross’s previous startup is extremely relevant here as well — his first company, Escher Reality, was building the AR cloud for AR developers when it was acquired by Niantic. Post-acquisition, Ross founded Niantic’s AR mapping/Visual Positioning System (VPS) effort and built the engineering team there from the ground up.

Why we’re betting on it: Augmodo’s system can be seamlessly integrated into retail stores in fewer than 20 minutes, costs 100x less than alternative solutions, and requires no operational changes for managers and associates. Already, Augmodo is working with leading retailers and brands on several pilots across a number of countries to develop AI that is purpose-built for retail. Ross and his team are well-positioned to deploy this technology thoughtfully and for the benefit of all impacted constituencies. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Augmodo as they usher spatial computing into the world of retail at scale and modernize the labor workforce.

Our take: At LH, our experience operating and investing in retail platforms, both on the ecommerce front and through brick-and-mortar stores, along with our deep interest in mapping and how AI can streamline existing manual processes and improve operational efficiency, aligns perfectly with Augmodo’s mission. The processes on which retail floor operations rely are ripe for disruption, and have been for a long time. Finally, AI has reached a stage of development where it can be applied to retail with immense dividends for all actors involved. Ross’s multi-disciplinary approach through both AI and spatial imaging makes Augomodo an extremely exciting new platform for retail stores around the world.

Further reading: “Exclusive: Inventory tracking startup Augmodo raises $5.3M seed” via Axios

Check out Augmodo on LinkedIn.

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Lerer Hippeau
Lerer Hippeau

Published in Lerer Hippeau

Lerer Hippeau is an early-stage venture capital fund founded and operated in New York City. We invest in good people with great ideas who redefine categories — and create new ones entirely.

Lerer Hippeau
Lerer Hippeau

Written by Lerer Hippeau

Lerer Hippeau is the most active early-stage venture capital fund in New York.

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