Indigo Fair, the AI-based supplier and marketplace for small retail outlets, has successfully closed a US$12-million Series A financing round led by Forerunner Ventures’ Kirsten Green and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Sequoia Capital.
Indigo Fair, which has offices in San Francisco and Waterloo Region, made the announcement Thursday, adding that Green would join the firm’s board of directors.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to add [Green’s] expertise to our ranks as we continue to grow our platform,” said CEO and co-founder Max Rhodes.
Green’s VC firm is a rarity in that it’s female led. Her acquisitions are beginning to create a stir, and she was profiled in Forbes last November.
Left to right, Indigo Fair co-founders Marcelo Cortes, Daniele Perito, and CEO Max Rhodes. (Photo courtesy Indigo Fair)
“She’s no stranger to the retail market,” said Rhodes. “Forerunner Ventures is the only VC firm to invest in both Dollar Shave Club and Jet.com, two of the biggest and highest-profile e-commerce exits in recent years, and counts Away, Birchbox, Bonobos, Glossier, Warby Parker and Zola among its portfolio companies.”
Indigo Fair simultaneously announced integrations with Square and Shopify, moves that it says will “equip our retailers with the power of data in their decision making, taking guesswork out of their operations entirely.”
Indigo Fair, which launched in January of 2017, allows retailers to try merchandise risk-free for 60 days, and return it if it doesn’t sell. Additionally, the company’s AI-based algorithms make recommendations to retailers about the correct products to carry, boosting sales and reducing the products that get returned.
The integrations with Square and Shopify allow Indigo Fair to “evaluate sales performance in real time, making recommendations for products similar to those already selling with a level of accuracy never realized before.”
Indigo Fair, which was featured in Communitech News last April, was founded by Rhodes, CIO Daniele Perito and CTO Marcelo Cortes, who met through their prior affiliation with Square, the mobile-payments company launched in 2009 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
