Introducing XRC Labs Cohort 5: It’s Off to the Races!
XRC Labs officially welcomed Cohort 5 to XRC Labs last week in front of nearly 200 retail and technology executives and investors from New York to San Francisco. The Demo Day countdown has begun! Founders have 13 more weeks of retail startup bootcamp to power through — where they will refine business models, brand strategy, pitch retailers, launch pilots, even pivot or change their names.
This year, more than ever, retailers and brands aren’t wasting any time getting to know the latest technologies that hold potential to propel their business forward — increasing customer engagement, reducing friction, and bridging the gap between digital and physical stores. There’s a heightened sense of urgency and “FOMO” in the (retail industry) air.
At the National Retail Federation’s annual show earlier this month, the Innovation Lab flooded with retail execs from 7am to close all three days. Similarly, our Cohort 5 Launch event was standing room only with a star-studded audience from companies including Brooks Brothers, Cartier, Cole Haan, Intel, Kering, Lowe’s, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Ralph Lauren, Unilever, Walmart and many, many more.
For Cohort 5, we accepted 300 applications from retail and CPG startups across 41 countries. The most prominent technologies in these applications were AI, blockchain, computer vision, natural language processing, and AR. The top industry segments addressed were e-commerce, marketing and social media, health and wellness, fashion, food and beverage, mobile, and social impact.
XRC Labs continues to prioritize investment in five key consumer-oriented retail trends:
- Store to the consumer (because time is our most valuable commodity)
- Store as experience (consumer wants more, faster and with less friction)
- Store as a platform (everything in one place, making our lives easier)
- Store as plant (producing goods in the store, on-demand)
- Store as a service, rentals (opportunity to extend the life of products)
Check out the Launch event video to hear our take on the state of retail today and listen to the founders pitch their startups.
Without further introduction, meet XRC Labs Cohort 5:
CONVRG — AI-powered messaging platform that drives engaging customer experiences through chat and voice interactions. Disney, H&M, Sephora, and Amazon Studios are among their partner fans.
Field-Test — insights and intelligence platform leveraging RFID technology to bridge physical and digital shopping worlds. Retailers have real-time transparency into engagement and sales performance across both platforms; customers have a holistic view of their purchase intent on and offline.
Frenzy — an exact-match visual search tool. Using deep learning algorithms and computer vision to parse through each item in your website images, Frenzy can determine the exact Brand, SKU and where the item can be purchased.
Hemster — enables consumers to find their perfect size by providing clothing alterations in a retailer’s POS. Westfield is rolling Hemster out in select properties, so their apparel stores can offer fast, reasonable hemming to customers, increasing conversion, loyalty and foot traffic.
KiraKira3D — mission-oriented mobile 3D design community for Gen Z girls. They can design and 3D print jewelry using AR and engineering software.
LexSet — spatial search interior design tool enables consumers to discover products that fit their homes. Driven by AI and AR, the tech provides spatial awareness unlike existing apps from large furniture brands.
Monolith — computer vision platform gives physical stores access to customer behavior data to optimize decisions from shop layout to allocating associates. Nike, Timberland, Audi and more use Monilith today.
NewCoX — in-mall logistics platform that transforms a shopping center into a frictionless, cost effective logistics hub. Mall-based retailers and parcel carriers can do more volume with existing inventory, people and assets unlike last mile services and traditional third-party logistics providers.
Reefil — network of water stations in urban businesses (e.g. retail, food-service) that provides an eco-friendly, low-cost option for hydration on-the-go. Catch them around The New School campus and other locations in NYC for easy water bottle refills!
Viveat — smart tagging platform gives physical products in our lives a digital identity. Consumers can interact with objects for product education, re-orders, registration and more; companies gain product lifecycle and supply chain analytics.
True to XRC Labs’ mission, it’s another diverse cohort and we’re proud to have female founders behind nearly half of the startups (51% of our startups to date are women-led).
Keep up with all things XRC via our newsletter, and don’t miss Cohort 5 Demo Day! Save the date: April 19, 2018 from 8am-12pm.
