The wider Praetura team are excited to be backing another fantastic Northern tech business and providing more than money support to make Sparkbox a go-to solution for even more household brands.” I’m looking forward to working with the team and sharing some of the lessons I’ve learnt from my time at Apple and the other tech businesses I’ve been lucky to work closely with over the years. We know how much potential there is for AI and machine learning to improve profits and reduce waste in retail, and we are thrilled to have Prateura join us on our mission to modernise merchandising and put data behind the important pricing and inventory decisions our users make every day.”Ĭolin Greene, operational partner at Praetura Ventures, added: “Sparkbox’s approach to inventory optimisation has the power to bring about massive changes in fashion and home retail, which is clearly behind the times when it comes to technology adoption within merchandising. Sparkbox’s co-founder, Lindsay Fisher, said: “As a team of former retailers, we’ve seen first-hand how the retail industry is advancing in many areas but falling behind when it comes to making data-driven decisions. In line with Praetura Ventures’ commitment to providing more than money support to the businesses it backs, Colin Greene, an operational partner at the VC, who was formerly Apple’s director of US Consumer Retail, will also join Sparkbox’s board. The team started Sparkbox after seeing an opportunity to innovate in a sector that still relies heavily on spreadsheets, guess work and gut feelings to make important commercial decisions. The company was co-founded by Forbes 30 Under 30 inductees Lindsay Fisher and Matthew Wong, and Kevin Blackmore, who prior to Sparkbox was vice president of Customer Insights at Best Buy and a retail analytics partner at Accenture.Ĭollectively, the founding team has 50 years of global retail experience, including previous work with Arcadia and The Very Group. Sparkbox will use Praetura Ventures’ investment to double its team and onboard further fashion, home and seasonal retailers, where deadstock is a constant challenge across the board. In addition to protecting retailers from profit losses, Sparkbox’s approach to data also has the potential to aid brand sustainability goals by preventing retailers from over ordering stock, with wide reports that fashion alone is responsible for up to 10% of global carbon emissions. In a recent trial with a £500m+ fashion retailer, Sparkbox improved cash margin on markdowns by 34% and paid back its client’s investment in just 34 days. Launched in 2019, Sparkbox has seen significant traction in the market to date. Sparkbox’s solution, which is trusted by River Island and, enables retailers to forecast demand, optimise their pricing and promotions and plan inventory to reduce waste and the need for big discounts. Praetura Ventures has invested £1.5m into a Manchester-based start-up that uses AI and in-depth data to help big brand merchandising teams make better stock buying and pricing decisions. AI start-up Sparkbox helps River Island, and other major brands improve profitability and reduce inventory waste.However, the beauty of OpX360® is that it requires no training and, in less than an hour, you have a clear understanding of what practices need improvement and a plan on how to do that. Over a week our leadership went through process improvement training. Arielle Randle, Communications Director and Nonprofit Leader I'd highly recommend it to any nonprofit director or manager. ![]() As a leader, sometimes you just need a really smart tool like this to get a pulse on if your priorities are on track. It was also encouraging to see how many areas we are already following best practices. OpX360® was an extremely helpful tool, because it gave me a reality check on the areas our organization needs to improve on. For a fraction of the cost, OpX360® provided us with more focused feedback and recommendations, along with actionable steps for improvement, than our consultants have. We’ve paid business consultants many thousands of dollars in recent years. ![]() Jon Hirst, Nonprofit Director and Innovation Thought Leader OpX360® allowed us to build a data-driven narrative (with objective baseline measurements, improvement recommendations and rationale for capacity building funding) that described the realities of our Fundraising, Marketing & Communications infrastructure for decision makers. ![]() Monisha de Quadros, Sparkbox Groupĭata is critical for insight. I was very impressed by the realistic and effective recommendations that can be implemented immediately within any organization. The best part of the tool is the data-driven 80 page report, generated within minutes of taking the assessment. OpX360 is a savvy, thorough assessment tool for any nonprofit leader who wants to improve their business operations.
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