US-based retail chain Walmart Stores is set to launch an incubator in Silicon Valley that will support startups developing products that may influence the retail industry, Bloomberg has reported.
The incubator, Store No 8, will seek to partner startups, venture capital investors and academics, and will back technologies such as drone delivery, personalised shopping, robotics, autonomous vehicles, virtual and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence.
Store No 8 will aim to help develop the technologies to use them across Walmart. It takes its name from an early Walmart store location where the retailer experimented with floor layouts.
The program was announced by Marc Lore, chief executive of the retailer’s e-commerce operations, at a conference in Las Vegas. Lore had previously founded e-commerce company Jet, which was acquired by Walmart for $3.3bn in August 2016.
Store No 8 will be led by principal Seth Beal, who was appointed the firm’s senior vice-president of incubation and strategic partnerships, in January 2017.