Ecommerce impulse purchase startup lands $10 million Series A

A Sydney ecommerce startup that uses machine learning and AI to help online retailers suggest sell to customers has raised $10 million Series A.

Particular Audience combines real-time shopping data sets to predict demand and allow retailers to personalise selling suggestions to their online customers, creating an online version of the bricks and mortar impulse buy suggestions at the checkout. It allows sellers to promote high margin or overstocked items items to customers, as well as offering the ability to let brands bid for online retail space on ecommerce sites.

The round was led by Equity Venture Partners with participation from existing backer Carthona Capital and previous angel investors including Dot Digital and Yotpo. The business previously raised $2.7 million.

EVP’s Daniel Szekely will join the Board. The capital will be used to build out the company’s API-first product suite and for global expansion, with new offices planned in New York and Amsterdam.

Particular Audience launched in London in 2019 and Europe now makes up more than 50% of the company’s global revenue. It also has an office in Vancouver.

The consumer platform mimics the likes of Spotify and Netflix is suggesting music and movies you like based on existing tastes. 

CEO and founder James Taylor said attention spans are shorter and people have more options in the ecommerce space, which creates a problem for retailers.

“If you have a million customers with their own unique intent, tastes and preferences, then you need a million versions of your website, however subtle, to make shopping experiences as relevant and convenient as possible,” he said.

“Our platform makes this easy. There are many retailers already using product discovery tools to optimize sales, but until now, most platforms on the market have been limited by siloed data from the individual websites they operate on.

“We believe that retail media and product discovery should never be provided by different vendors. They should be part of one unified experience, which is why we made our solution a one-stop-shop.”

EVP’s Szekley said personalisation of the internet is a critical frontier for ecommerce retailers.

“In a world of growing online shopping options and diminishing consumer attention spans, delivering an experience that meets individual consumers’ needs is absolutely critical,” he said.

“James and his outstanding team have tackled this issue in a novel way, and the important need for their solution has been made obvious as the business gets pulled into multiple geographies.”