US-based in-store retail analytics provider RetailNext raised $125m yesterday in a series E round featuring the corporate venturing units of communications technology maker Nokia and wireless technology supplier Qualcomm.
Nokia Growth Partners and Qualcomm Ventures were joined by payment services provider American Express Ventures, Activant Capital Group, which led the round, August Capital, StarVest Partners, Commerce Ventures, Pereg Ventures and Siguler Guff & Company.
Founded in 2007, RetailNext provides technology that enables brick-and-mortar stores to collect and correlate data sourced from sensors installed within stores.
The series E round brought RetailNext’s overall funding to $184m. Nokia had been an investor in the company since its $15m series C round in 2013, while Qualcomm and Amex came on board for a July 2014 series D round that raised $30m from backers also including conglomerate Tyco.
RetailNext intends to use the series E cash to begin pursuing acquisition opportunities as it looks to strengthen its position in North America, Europe and Asia, while expanding in the Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions.
The company also plans to further develop its software platform, investing in research and development and expanding its engineering resources in order to discover new in-store location and predictive analytics technologies.
Alexei Agratchev, chief executive of RetailNext, said: “This financing represents another important step forward in building RetailNext into one of the biggest and best retail analytics software companies in the world. It extends our world-class retail solutions team and the unique benefits we deliver to customers, and affords us the flexibility to aggressively evaluate acquisition opportunities.”