Nozzle.ai, an eCommerce and advertising optimisation platform for Amazon, has raised $2.6 million (£2 million) in funding from Parkwalk Advisors, The Angel CoFund (ACF), UCL Technology Fund (UCLTF), and a syndicate of eCommerce-expert angel investors. The funding will accelerate the company’s growth as it attracts major international brands and agencies to its proprietary AI platform.
Nozzle.ai, a spinout of UCL’s Computer Science Department, was designed by data scientists and Amazon experts to help brands maximise sales and share category and advertising performance on Amazon. Using the rich transactional and media data sets available through Amazon’s API ecosystem, Nozzle.ai provides companies with operational efficiencies, deep insights and delivers continuous media spend optimisation and sales performance across Amazon’s entire ad tech stack. This helps sellers and retailers drive market share and profitability on Amazon.
UCL is internationally recognised for its strength in AI and has a strong record in spinning out very successful start-ups, not least DeepMind which was wholly acquired by Alphabet in 2015.
The $2.6 million in funding will go towards expanding the team across all business functions and the further development of Nozzle.ai’s product offering (advertising audit, customer analytics and advertising bid management) accelerating adoption among sellers, brands and their agencies.
Victor Malachard, Nozzle.ai Co-Founder and Executive Chairman said:
“This funding will help us reach new retailers and further support our existing clients in addressing the challenges and opportunities of selling and advertising in a competitive and fast-growing marketplace. The application of machine learning, and the fusion of transactional data with media data, brings brands huge advantage in the Amazon environment, extracting maximum commercial value and sales performance. Our platform is at the forefront of unlocking this potential for international retailers.”
All three Nozzle.ai products are already in commercial use with more than 100 customers, including major multinational brands and leading agencies including Omnicom Media Group and Interpublic Group agencies Reprise and J3.
Nozzle.ai customer Achal Patel, co-founder & CEO of Valumeds and Cabinet Health, commented: “Amazon is our most important sales channel and as a modernised, sustainable over-the-counter medicine brand we were looking for a partner who could help us better understand our customers and give us the analysis to take our business to the next level. Working with our Valumeds’ Amazon data, Nozzle.ai has helped us understand our customer lifetime value and our customers’ repeat purchase journeys across our product range. This has allowed us to calculate an accurate breakeven ACoS, re-allocate advertising and SEO budgets and run Amazon PPC campaigns more aggressively, knowing we can outspend competitors and gain market share whilst still being profitable. It has also given us the confidence to launch our new premium brand on Amazon – Cabinet.”
Neil Cameron, Investment Director at Parkwalk, the lead investor in the funding round, said: “Nozzle.ai technology is using the application of machine learning to revolutionise the e-commerce space. The early success of Nozzle.ai gives our team great confidence in its continued success. We are excited to be involved in this next stage of growth both in expanding their team and building up their product offering to accelerate adoption internationally.
Tim Mills, Managing Partner of ACF said: “Nozzle.ai is a great example of a UK company using advanced data science to create a strong product offering that delivers unparalleled value to users. Working closely with sellers, brands and agencies it enhances their level of retail intelligence on the Amazon platform and provides a layer of technology the extends beyond anything previously available. This unique offering has already seen brilliant market traction and with this funding has the potential to expand in the international eCommerce market.”
David Grimm, Investment Director at UCLTF said: “Nozzle.ai have used their deep understanding of data engineering and machine learning to wring incredible insight out of disparate datasets. We have been highly impressed with the value this is creating for their customers, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when Nozzle.ai algorithms helped clients identify and respond to the rapidly changing consumer behaviours. We are delighted to continue supporting them as they enter the next stage of growth”.
