Impact Analytics raises USD 11M led by Argentum to accelerate growth

Baltimore [United States], February 24 (ANI/NewsVoir): Impact Analytics, Inc, a leading provider of AI-driven SaaS solutions for planning & merchandising within the retail industry, announced today that it has closed a USD 11 million growth financing led by Argentum Capital Partners IV, L.P.
In connection with the financing, Walter H. Barandiaran, Managing Partner at Argentum, has joined Impact's Board of Directors.
Impact's industry-leading, next-generation AI-driven technology platform powers SaaS solutions aimed at optimizing the forecasting, planning and merchandising functions for retailers and consumer packaged goods ("CPG") manufacturers. As the industry currently relies on spreadsheets and legacy manual systems for these key decisions, retailers have an opportunity to increase sales and margins by utilizing Impact's solutions.
The Company's SmartSuite and Forecasting products for Assortment planning, Allocation optimization, Markdown optimization and Promotion planning are deployed at leading retailers, including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Puma, JoAnn and Belk. Several large private equity firms are actively encouraging their portfolio companies in the retail sector to adopt Impact's solutions.
"We believe that smart decisions are made when humans and machines work together. We have built best-in-class decisioning systems that unlock the power of artificial intelligence for our customers, in easy-to-use workflows," said Prashant Agrawal, Impact's CEO.
The Company's decisioning systems also enhance retailers' sustainability efforts by helping them make more precise merchandising and allocation decisions, reducing waste and their carbon footprint.
"A recent Gartner report concluded that retailers need to adopt AI in order to improve and enhance assortment and pricing optimization. As investors with extensive experience in retail tech, Argentum has seen the COVID pandemic accelerate the need for artificial intelligence and data-based decisioning in the retail industry," said Walter Barandiaran, Argentum's Managing Partner. "Brands and retailers have been forced to re-think overnight their approach to planning and merchandising, as substantial sales volume moved swiftly from bricks & mortar to online commerce. Brands and retailers must now and in the future make smart, data-based decisions in real-time about inventory, pricing and promotion. The impact is well-positioned to fulfil this market need," Walter added.
"We look forward to working with Walter and Argentum and leveraging their domain knowledge and experience investing in retail tech. Argentum is known for their expertise in partnering with bootstrapped companies to accelerate growth, and with their investment, we will build our sales team, expand our product development team and increase the market reach of our products," added Prashant.
Impact Analytics is a fast-growing, AI-powered software solutions company that provides planning, merchandising and forecasting tools for the retail, CPG and grocery sectors. Its suite of products for Assortment planning, Allocation optimization, Markdown optimization and Promotion planning is empowering leading retailers to make smart data-based decisions and transform their businesses and achieve substantial business benefits. Headquartered in Maryland, Impact Analytics has offices in Los Angeles, New York and Bangalore. In 2016, Impact Analytics secured USD 725k in a seed funding round led by early-stage VC firm Aarin Capital, a joint venture founded by TV Mohandas Pai and Dr Ranjan Pai.
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Impact Analytics was named as a representative vendor in two recent Gartner Market Guide for Retail reports:
Assortment Optimization Applications in Merchandising (October 2020) highlights Impact's AssortSmart solution.
Unified Price, Promotion and Markdown Optimization Applications (January 2021) references Impact's Pricing & Promo Suite (PriceSmart, MarkSmart, PromoSmart + TradeSmart).
Gartner Disclaimer: Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Argentum is a New York-based growth equity firm that partners with entrepreneurial owners to build industry-leading B2B software, technology-enabled and business services companies. The firm invests in companies with revenues of USD 5 million to USD 25 million, providing capital to accelerate growth, fund acquisitions and/or generate shareholder liquidity. Over its 30-year history, Argentum has invested in 90 companies and supported more than 200 add-on acquisitions. Argentum fills the growing gap between early-stage venture capital investors and later-stage growth equity firms by targeting bootstrapped companies seeking USD 5 million to USD 15 million of equity capital.
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