Rubikloud Gets $7M To Help Stores Analyze Big Data

Toronto-based startup Rubikloud has raised $7 million to help retailers use a big-data approach to customer analytics, according to TechCrunch.

The Series A funding round was led by TOM Group — a joint venture between Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa — and Ule, the Chinese e-commerce platform launched by TOM Group and China Post. Access Industries and a group of angel investors also participated.

In part, the new money will be used to double Rubikloud’s headcount from 13 full-time employees today to between 25 and 30 by year’s end, increasing its data science team while also expanding more in North America and China.

Rubikloud was originally launched to help online retailers use big data to boost their sales by understanding consumer behavior and applying data analytics on the fly to improve conversion rates. But over time it became clear that the same type of data analysis could also be applied to brick-and-mortar stores as well.

That legacy store data is usually messy and difficult to wrangle, stored in multiple systems with no cross-platform view. Rubikloud lets retailers consolidate, normalize and analyze the data by connecting their data stores to Rubikloud’s system, then letting the startup do all the work to provide a simplified view of the retailer’s performance while pushing actionable insights to them directly.

Rubikloud has already signed up a group of retailers focused in the fashion, health and beauty verticals, together generating about $25 billion in annual sales. Those retailers already have a large amount of data about their sales and rewards customers, and just need a little help understanding how to apply that data, said Rubikloud CEO Kerry Liu. Once they have that, they can increase their overall sales by identifying and engaging with their most valuable customers.

Shifting from an online to offline focus makes sense, since 90 percent of retail spending is still in-store. But that niche is also consolidating, which could make it tougher to crack for a vendor aiming just at North American retailers.

But with the new investment it’s clear that Rubikloud will be focusing on tailoring its product for Chinese customers. According to Liu, those investors have more than $60 billion in retail sales either managed directly or through joint ventures. “This is a race to see who can get the most data from the most relevant retailers,” Liu said. “It’s a race to see who will be the data consolidation and model framework for retail.”