Philadelphia-based Invent Analytics has raised $7.5m in a series A round to accelerate growth of its AI-driven retail planning.

Invent Analytics helps retailers increase profitability by leveraging data-driven demand forecasting, inventory planning and pricing. With a team of 140 data scientists and engineers, it is helping retailers optimise their supply chain and inventory planning to win in the world of omni-channel retail.

The company has already achieved success with its technology, winning over many retailers in the USA, Europe, Middle East and Asia. Clients have experienced a two to six per cent increase in profitability, increased sales, lowered inventory and reduced fulfilment costs.

“Supply chain transformation is critical for retailers to maintain a competitive advantage as customer expectations rise in a complex omni-channel retail environment,” said Gurhan Kok, CEO of Invent Analytics. “We help retailers optimise their entire supply chain, unifying network planning, inventory and price optimisation, and fulfilment in one powerful framework and boost customer satisfaction. As Invent Analytics, we aim to grow by maintaining our leadership in the omni-channel forecasting and inventory planning domain.”

The round was led by EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction & Development), with participation from Collective Spark. The funding will be used to accelerate Invent Analytics’ growth in North America and western Europe and continue to invest in its AI-powered supply chain technology for omni-channel retail.

“Supply chain and inventory management have become a C-level priority for retailers due to the ongoing supply chain disruptions, inflationary pressures as well as consumers’ increasing expectations for omni-channel experience,” said Yalcin Gungoren from EBRD. “Invent Analytics’ differentiated and science-driven retail planning suite delivers a measurable and straightforward RoI with an incredible speed-to-value. Gurhan Kok and the broader Invent Analytics team have unparalleled domain expertise. We are very excited to be joining their journey as they take retail planning to a new level.”

Atil Erken, general partner at Collective Spark, added: “The retail industry has the potential to benefit enormously from artificial intelligence. We have been closely watching Invent Analytics’ strong progress for some time and believe that it has the AI-powered technology to accelerate retailers’ omni-channel demand forecasting, allocation, replenishment and markdown capabilities creating measurable direct bottom-line RoI. There’s no doubt that Invent Analytics will be a pioneer as a global retail planning provider in the industry soon.”