LocalExpress has closed a $6.2 million venture round led by OXZ Capital, marking a significant step in its transformation from unified commerce provider to the premier data syndication platform for grocery retailers.
Since its founding, LocalExpress has helped hundreds of grocery and food retailers in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America streamline their online and in-store operations through a single, AI-native platform.
By harmonizing product catalogs and processing millions of transactions and inventory updates, LocalExpress has built one of the most extensive libraries of grocery data transformations in the industry. The new funding will enable the company to package that expertise into a data syndication service, delivering clean, enriched data feeds to point-of-sale systems, loyalty programs, retail media platforms, and other grocery technology partners.
OXZ Capital identified LocalExpress’s combination of e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and grocery specialization as a compelling opportunity in a sector that is still adopting digital solutions. This investment represents OXZ Capital’s first venture outside Asia and its debut in retail technology, reflecting confidence in LocalExpress’s vision and execution. As part of the round, OXZ’s chief investment officer will work closely with LocalExpress to refine its go-to-market strategy and accelerate expansion into new independent and regional grocer networks.
By acting as a single source of truth, LocalExpress can help grocers improve pricing accuracy, reduce out-of-stocks, and deliver personalized promotions across channels. These improvements not only boost operational efficiency but also level the playing field against national chains.
How the funding will be used: With this new backing, the company will extend its advanced AI data capabilities beyond its own operations and connect independent and regional grocers to the broader technology ecosystem. LocalExpress also plans to grow its engineering and product organizations, further develop AI-powered capabilities such as automated inventory mapping and real-time analytics, and simplify the onboarding process for new customers. By turning its platform into a central hub—much like Zapier does for integrations—LocalExpress aims to make it effortless for grocers to syndicate accurate product, pricing, and inventory data to every partner application they use.
KEY QUOTES:
“From day one of launching LocalExpress, we have been helping independents with structuring, harmonizing and enriching their grocery data. We have built a tremendous data transformation library and now with the AI revolution, we’re growing our proprietary grocery data AI to become the Zapier for grocery data – seamlessly connecting and distributing intelligence across the entire tech ecosystem. This amplifies the data intelligence we’ve built and helps grocers make smarter decisions with timely analytics. OXZ Capital’s investment and expertise will help us scale further and faster, particularly as we bring more AI-powered solutions to market that empower independent retailers to compete at the highest level.”
Bagrat Safarian, CEO and Co-Founder of LocalExpress
“LocalExpress stood out to us as a transformative platform at the intersection of e-commerce, AI and grocery — a sector primed for digital acceleration. This represents the first investment OXZ Capital has made outside of Asia and the first in the retail technology sector. We are excited to support the LocalExpress team as they continue to revolutionize grocery retail through unified commerce solutions.”
Lester Ng, Chief Investment Officer at OXZ Capital
