Crisp, an artificial intelligence platform for retail data based in Springdale, announced Thursday the close of a Series B1 round of $26M led by Paine Schwartz Partners of New York.
Paine Schwartz is the largest private equity firm dedicated to sustainable food chain investing. Crisp’s platform aims to eliminate food waste with a primary goal of creating a zero-waste supply chain.
Additional investors in the equity round include Blue Cloud Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Cox, DNX, Prologis and Wellington Management.
A press release announcing the funding stated that existing lenders, as well as JPMorgan and Silver Lake Waterman, “remain important capital partners supporting Crisp’s accelerated growth strategy.”
Total funding now stands at $127M raised since Crisp’s inception in 2017.
“The retail capital of the world is right here in NWA. And with the incredible changes that AI will drive for CPG manufacturers and their retail partners, the innovation will be led by the incredible people based in NWA,” Are Traasdahl, founder and CEO of Crisp, told Arkansas Business. “As the leading vertical AI platform trusted by thousands of CPG brands, Crisp combines the power of agentic AI with deep retail expertise.
“This latest round of funding will enable us to accelerate our product development, helping brands leverage AI to take actions that drive sales and supply chain performance,” Traasdahl said.
Unique Platform
Crisp uses vertical AI, a specialized form of the technology that is built to solve specific problems within a particular industry. It utilizes industry-specific data for greater accuracy than general — or horizontal — AI.
Crisp’s platform can complete industry-specific tasks such as automatically reducing out-of-stocks, maximizing e-commerce revenue, and optimizing assortment and space planning. The company works with more than 7,000 retail brands.
“Investors are looking to support companies that are demonstrating measurable change through advanced technology,” Traasdahl said in the press release. “Paine Schwartz recognizes that Crisp represents a compelling opportunity to invest in a scaling, high-ROI vertical AI data platform operating at the intersection of commerce, supply chain and sustainability.”
The new funding will support the company’s aggressive growth efforts, including expanding value to consumer packaged goods and retail channels through new platform features and functionality, expansion of new data partnerships, investment in the Crisp AI Agent flagship product and growing through strategic hires globally.
“Crisp is an example of a company laser-focused on creating smarter data and AI-driven systems that power the global food chain,” Kevin Schwartz, CEO and managing partner of Paine Schwartz Partners said in the press release. “They have proven repeatedly that they have the ability to scale and build the solutions that are needed to address the toughest challenges within the global food supply chain.”
Crisp recently launched its AI Agent Studio, the retail industry’s first purpose-built AI agent platform.
AI Agent Studio orchestrates the delivery of supply chain insights and prompts actions that aim to improve retail performance in real time. The platform is enabled by Crisp’s retail data foundation, which cleanses, models and interprets data sets across commerce partners.
“Are and his team have identified the most pressing business challenges faced by every CPG brand and their retail partners,” Rick Heitzmann, FirstMark Capital founder and partner, said in the release. “Crisp leverages an intelligent, connected data strategy supported by the latest AI and automation tools. As a vertical AI solution that touches production, inventory, logistics, pricing, marketing and more, Crisp is an expert in AI and retail data, and they are well-positioned to lead the market.”
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