Brightspark, BDC Capital and Rhino Ventures are backing the startup led by Harry Chemko.
Vancouver ShopVision Technologies has secured a US$4.1 million ($5.6 million CAD) seed round for its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered market research platform.
The all-equity round was led by Brightspark Ventures, with participation from BDC Capital, Rhino Ventures and undisclosed strategic investors from “category-defining brands.” BDC seed venture fund partner Dinar Ahmed and Brightspark partner Andrew Lugsdin have joined ShopVision's founding team on the board of directors, CEO Harry Chemko told BetaKit in an email. The early-stage company will use the funding to scale its go-to-market, product development and data collection efforts.
Until now, ShopVision has been funded by its founders, their friends and family, and by grants.
ShopVision was founded in 2024 by Chemko, chief product officer Peter Sheldon and chief technology officer Geoff Neal, but didn't launch publicly until April. So far, ShopVision has been funded by its founders, with some support from friends and family, as well as research grants from Industrial Research Assistance Program– Chemko said.
ShopVision helps e-commerce merchants automate competitive analysis with an AI agent that connects to first-party and third-party data sources. The agent tracks competitors' advertising campaigns, analyzes the effectiveness of the seller's past campaigns, and determines the optimal timing for new campaigns. All this automated analysis is then compiled into weekly summaries for management and relevant teams.
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Chemko previously founded Vancouver-based e-commerce startup Elastic Path and led it for two decades. Elastic Path raised approx. $150 million to date and acquired international e-commerce companies while Chemko was at the helm. Chemko resigned as CEO he will become Elastic Path's chief strategy officer in 2020. He will remain in this position leading ShopVision. Chemko told BetaKit that ShopVision is a completely separate entity from Elastic Path.
Sheldon and Neil respectively have experience as the former vice president of strategy at software giant Adobe and CTO of fashion technology company Vivrelle.
Since its launch five months ago, ShopVision has added dozens of brands and retailers as clients, Chemko said. He added that the platform is currently only available in North America, but plans to expand to other regions soon.
Image courtesy of ShopVision.
