Retail Product Decision Engine Company MakerSights Closes $8.5 Million

By Noah Long ● Updated June 30, 2019
  • Retail product decision engine company announced it raised $8.5 million in Series A funding led by new investors Forerunner Ventures

MakerSights, a retail product decision engine company, announced it raised $8.5 million in Series A funding led by new investors Forerunner Ventures. BazaarVoice founders Brett A. Hurt and Brant Barton also joined this round.

And they are joining current investors including Steve Anderson (founder of Baseline Ventures), Hayley Bay Barna (partner at First Round Capital), Bill McComb (former CEO of Kate Spade and Lucky Brand), Elizabeth Spaulding (senior partner at Bain & Company), and Jeff Epstein, former CFO of Oracle and DoubleClick. In conjunction with this funding round, Forerunner Ventures general partner Brian O’Malley is joining the MakerSights Board of Directors.

With this round of funding, MakerSights will be making key leadership hires, accelerate the growth of in-house engineering and data teams, fuel international expansion, and scale its go-to-market operations. Plus MakerSights has grown its customer base by 5 times and significantly expanded its footprint of enterprise brands such as Calvin Klein, Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger, Shinola, Taylor Stitch, HOKA ONE ONE, Teva, and Allbirds.

“Today just 20% of retail brands account for over 140% of the economic growth in the industry, and a common trait across the leadership teams of these winning brands is a commitment to equipping their organizations with modern tooling in order to succeed in a rapidly changing retail environment,” said MakerSights co-founder and CEO Dan Leahy. “Informed decisions lead to better outcomes, ultimately keeping inventory from landfills and lifting brands’ bottom lines. MakerSights gives brand leaders confidence that decision makers throughout their organization will have the best possible information at their fingertips to support critical product decisions. This investment from Forerunner, a firm whose investing track record in retail is unparalleled, underscores our shared vision for a retail industry that is more consumer-centric and less wasteful.”

How does the MakerSights platform work? It puts product intelligence in the hands of go-to-market decision makers for driving action. And it showcases the voice of the consumer, internal perspectives, and historical selling data in easy to interpret formats. This gives decision makers timely access to critical information to inform their key investments. As a result, designers get rapid feedback on new concepts, merchandising teams can spot opportunities and risks before finalizing line plans, and sales teams can learn the preferences of consumers at key retail accounts prior to going to market.

Using proprietary machine learning algorithms, MakerSights is able to analyze the actual in-market selling of assortments to consistently improve decision recommendations over time. And the end result is better and faster decision-making across the organization thus resulting in profitable assortments, reduced waste, and loyal customers.

“About ten years ago, marketing organizations went through a transformation where they went from being gut-driven to data-driven. Along the way, several software companies were built creating over $10 billion in equity value,” added O’Malley. “MakerSights and its talented team are paving the way in a similar revolution within the merchant organization. With MakerSights, the most progressive teams at leading retailers can now combine their instincts with real-time consumer insights to help make better product decisions that leave customers happier and improve gross margins.”