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Allyke (Wellesley)
- Amount: $1.3M seed round
- Investors: Benedetta Casamento, CEO of Calypso St. Barth, and Boston angel investor Joe Caruso.
- Details: Allyke is aiming to help retailers improve sales, online and in-store, through a "visual shopping platform" that helps customers easily browse through products and similar items through an image-based interface. The platform is a software-as-a-service that integrates with a retailer's website or mobile app, and it uses artificial intelligence algorithms developed by former MIT scientists to determine what kind of images are similar. The seed funding will be used for product development and marketing, along with hiring more employees. The company's executive team is CEO Greg Moeller, formerly managing director of GrowthWorks; CTO Neal Checka, formerly senior partner at Cellar Door Labs; and EVP Retail Michael Yacobian, founder of retail consulting firm The Yacobian Group. Cassamento and Caruso have joined as board members. "Retailers are looking beyond simple tools and technology for comprehensive solutions that define a consumer’s shopping experience," Cassamento said. "Allyke provides the platform for this type of experience."
Spark Capital (Boston)
- Amount: None raised yet, but firm is seeking $500 million for its 2nd growth fund, according to an SEC filing
- Details: The firm previously raised $375 million for its first growth fund in 2014
