![]() “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.” “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,” he said. ![]() 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.įinTech Delio secures £6.2m growth fundingĬolin Greene, an operational partner at Praetura – formerly Apple’s director of US consumer retail – will join Sparkbox’s board. 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. 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. Launched in 2019, Sparkbox says a recent trial with a £500m+ fashion retailer saw it improve cash margin on markdowns by 34%, paying back its client’s investment in just 34 days. 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. ![]() “We place high value on the right strategic partners and are thrilled to announce the support from Greg Norman and our other investors.A Manchester-based startup using AI and data to help retail merchandising teams make better stock buying and pricing decisions has raised £1.5 million. “By leveraging Spalk’s patented Virtual Commentary Studio, sports leagues and broadcasters no longer have to fly commentators to the stadium or studio to call games – they can do it from a laptop anywhere in the world,” said Ben Reynolds, CEO of Spalk. “Mass personalisation of live sports content opens up enormous revenue opportunities for leagues and broadcasters and we are excited to support Spalk as they disrupt this legacy industry,” said Brandon Janosky, Managing Partner at Stadia Ventures. The new partnership will aid in Spalk’s North American growth and support introducing the technology in golf and other sports verticals. The technology is already being used extensively by FIBA, the governing body for basketball, as well as World Rugby and several Division I college conferences in the U.S. Since launch in 2017, Spalk has covered more than 5,000 live events for 100+ content partners who have seen up to a 70% increase in audience size. I am a firm believer in entrepreneurship and to have the opportunity to discover the ‘next best thing in sport’ and give a head start to the young entrepreneurs at Spalk is really special to me.” “Demographically targeted commentary is a win-win for both fans and broadcasters and Spalk is leading the way. “As the world becomes increasingly more global, a one-size fits all approach to sports broadcasting is no longer relevant,” said Greg Norman. After receiving hundreds of applications from around the world – including eight countries and five continents – Spalk, a New York City-based company with New Zealand origins, emerged as the winner. Spalk was a finalist in “Greg Norman’s Search for the Next Sports Entrepreneur” held at the University of Miami in March 2017 wherein Greg Norman and his team of investors held a worldwide search to discover the next successful inventors, creators and innovators in sport. Fans are able to choose a commentator for each game that suits their preferred language, style or bias – driving fan engagement while increasing audience size and lowering production costs for content owners. Greg Norman Company has announced a material investment in Spalk as the leader in a $1.5MM series seed round alongside Stadia Ventures, Ice Angels, Sparkbox Ventures and others.Ī virtual sportscasting studio, Spalk’s proprietary Live Sync technology synchronises live sports streams with multiple alternate remote commentaries from anywhere in the world.
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