UNCROWD : MICROSOFT’S WORLDWIDE START-UP PARTNER OF THE YEAR

WINNER Microsofts for Start-ups Partner of the year

· Accolade reflects the Uncrowd team’s creation of a retail customer analytics platform that rapidly converts nuanced insights into actions and profit

· “Just wild! This is an incredible accolade and a fantastic endorsement of the calibre of the UK tech start-up community,” says Uncrowd CEO

Uncrowd, the British company that is developing a world-class actionable customer analytics platform for retailers, is this year’s recipient of Microsoft’s inaugural global award for Start-Ups.

London-headquartered Uncrowd, founded by retail experts, offers a customer analytics platform that enables retailers to understand customer preferences and behaviour, make immediate changes to marketing and operations, and dramatically increase sales.

The global accolade, the first of its kind, recognises Uncrowd’s entrepreneurial, customer-focused potential and the utility of its platform. Uncrowd was selected from the huge array of companies delivering services via Microsoft’s Azure platform worldwide.

Uncrowd enables retailers to configure up to 82 variables, model their impact on customer browsing and buying behaviour relative to competitors and take immediate, profitable actions.

Commenting on the award, Richard Hammond, co-founder and CEO of Uncrowd, said:

“We’re thunderstruck by this endorsement from Microsoft, a global technology giant and hugely supportive partner. For us, it feels like the award equivalent of a Series A round. The buzz around our platform is intensifying and retailers are waking up to the importance of nuance and accuracy in insight. In the last few years, Board and operational tolerance of vague metrics have declined as better ways of understanding and modelling customer motivations have emerged. We’re at the crest of this wave and we’re delighted with this accolade. It’s yet another important endorsement of the calibre of the UK tech start-up community.”

The business has completed a seed funding round, with investments from key retail and tech entrepreneurs, private equity investors and VC funds. London-headquartered Uncrowd currently employs nine people, has a presence in the US, and is focused on the top 250 retailers worldwide.

Uncrowd is also expanding its advisory Board with the appointments of Joanne Webb, a senior commercial strategist who has held executive roles at the Walt Disney Company and Merlin Entertainments, and John Phillips, CTO at Havas. Further executive appointments to the Uncrowd advisory Board are imminent.

Co-founder and CTO, Rocky Howard, said: “Our platform enables any of the top 250 retailers in the world to add a minimum of $1 million to their operating profit without getting close to Uncrowd’s full potential. There isn’t a platform in the world that gives retailers as clear a set of actionable insights about their customers. It’s the sort of management information that makes a minute by minute difference to sales performance, grounded in practical utility. It makes Net Promoter scores look like vague, redundant hearsay by comparison.”

ABOUT UNCROWD

Uncrowd answers retail’s most fundamental questions: “Why do customers choose retailer x over retailer y — and what we can we do about it?”

Uncrowd’s innovative analytics platform, with integrated artificial intelligence and machine learning, provides insights into shopper choice, behaviours and likelihood to visit for any given customer mission and mindset. Uncrowd’s platform works for both online and physical retailers.

Uncrowd’s Friction/Reward Indexing™ (FRi™) provides clear answers and actionable insights on where and why a customer on a given shopping trip — will or won’t — shop.

Uncrowd’s CEO Richard Hammond describes the platform: “Imagine a physical High Street or an online shopping environment. Potential customers flood down it, heading towards one store or a website. Imagine being able to play a card that diverts them to you instead. That’s what we’re offering: up to 82 data-driven ‘cards’ that show you the winning combination to make you the first choice in any given shopper mission. It has been likened to a real-stakes Monopoly Game in which you hold all the cards.”

Uncrowd is an enterprise SaaS platform built in response to the desperate need for better customer analytics in retail. Partnered with Microsoft, Uncrowd’s FRi™ Platform is available through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, as well as direct from Uncrowd.