Ukrainian-founded Competera secures $3M in a seed round
Competera, the startup which builds an intelligent price optimization platform for retailers, has secured a $3 million seed round to expand its services into the US retail sector. Investors in the round include STRATMINDS, Flyer One Ventures, Verras Capital, SMRK Fund, and Transform Partners Fund.
- Co-founded by Oleksandr Halkin and Oleksandr Sazonov, Competera launched its pricing platform in 2018. It provides retailers with direct access to real-time market data, rule-based automation, and multi-purpose recommendation engines. The algorithms of the platform use deep-learning techniques to generate optimal prices based on over 20 factors, such as inflation, seasonality, price elasticity, competitor behavior, and promotional impact.
While working as a retail pricing expert at a Big Four management consultancy, I noticed that retailers were plagued with inefficiencies when seeking pricing services to maximize margins and revenue. I knew there had to be a smarter and faster approach to pricing optimization efforts leveraging data and AI,
Oleksandr, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
- Recently, the team introduced its latest product, Competera X, a self-service version of the pricing tool for individual sellers on Amazon, Etsy, and Shopify. The startup has more than 50 customers across 18 countries, including the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy. According to the company, its platform has optimized $60 billion in revenue for retailers in 20 sectors.
The round saw participation from STRATMINDS, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm specializing in applied AI, Ukraine’s early-stage venture capital Flyer One Ventures, Verras Capital, a venture capital firm based in Dover, Ukrainian fund SMRK Fund. The group of angel investors also participated.
Competera plans to use the funding to enhance its AI capabilities, broaden its service offerings, and scale its operations, focusing on the US market. Additionally, in October 2021, Competera announced a $1.5 million late-seed funding round.