Harmonya raises $20m. to change retail and packaged goods industry

In a move that could see AI drastically improve the way people shop, software company Harmonya has closed $20 million in Series A funding for its platform focused on transforming the consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail sectors. With participation from investors including Bright Pixel Capital, Team8, Arc Investors, J Ventures, Silicon Road Ventures, Allen & Company, LiveRamp Ventures, and Susa Ventures, this funding brings Harmonya's total investment to $25 million.

Harmonya’s solution is based on the notion that the way stores and companies currently handle information about their products is dated and inflexible, and as such it can't keep up with the ever-changing tastes of shoppers. It also makes it hard for stores and companies to predict how much of each product they need and to offer customers products that match their specific preferences.

Harmonya's platform is poised to improve the everyday shopping experience for people in several ways. Shoppers might expect more personalized product recommendations that align with their preferences and values, fewer out-of-stock items thanks to stores’ better predictive capabilities, and the potential for more transparent and detailed product information, addressing concerns such as ingredient transparency or environmental impact.

“When a new consumer trend emerges, like Sustainability or Wellness, CPGs, and retailers need to go over all of their existing products after the fact and manually add attributes to each,” said CEO and co-founder Cem Kent. “This limits their ability to quickly identify and respond to emerging consumer preferences, power accurate demand forecasting, and create tailored shopping experiences.”

In response to this challenge, Harmonya has developed an AI-powered product data enrichment, categorization, and insights platform for retailers and brands. Their solution leverages advanced generative AI and large language models to dynamically extract product attributes from diverse sources. 

Francisco Nunes of Bright Pixel Capital reiterated the challenge presented to modern retailers. “The CPG and retail industries are vast and ever-changing, presenting countless opportunities for innovation–especially in the area of product data, where current approaches and technology don’t meet the standards of modern data-driven organizations,” he said, praising Harmonya as “a key player in unlocking the untapped potential within these industries, bringing them closer to how consumers perceive and experience products.”

Harmonya builds market dominance

Harmonya has established a significant presence in the industry, serving four of the top ten global CPG companies and prominent US retailers. Throughout the first half of this year, the company expanded its customer base, assisting both corporate data teams and customer teams collaborating with merchants and buyers. Harmonya's proprietary technology efficiently handles data from millions of online product listings, extracting distinct tags from diverse sources like titles, descriptions, ingredients, and consumer reviews.

“We’ve been looking closely at potential uses of data technologies and data infrastructure,” said Yuval Shachar, Managing Partner and Executive Chairman of Team8. “It was clear to us that there's a market need for a company to disrupt the space in the retail industry and unlock tremendous value by adapting product data for the AI era. Harmonya is doing just that."