Consumer Data Company Retina Scores $2.5 million

Rachel Uranga

Rachel Uranga is dot.LA's Managing Editor, News. She is a former Mexico-based market correspondent at Reuters and has worked for several Southern California news outlets, including the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Los Angeles Daily News. She has covered everything from IPOs to immigration. Uranga is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and California State University Northridge. A Los Angeles native, she lives with her husband, son and their felines.

Consumer Data Company Retina Scores $2.5 million
Courtesy of Retina

Retina, a Santa Monica startup that provides e-commerce companies like Dollar Shave Club and Madison Reed predictions of consumer behavior based on algorithms, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $2.5 million in funding led by Crosscut Ventures.


The backend platform helps business predict shopping habits by using what it says is "next-gen algorithms" and will use the funds to grow its reach and expand products. Since its inception, the company has pulled in $5 million in venture capital.

Data on shoppers and their long-term buying habits are especially vaunted in the e-commerce world where there's an intense fight for repeat customers as the retail industry sees radical change. Brick-and-mortar stores like Macy's, which announced on Tuesday it would close 125 stores in low-tier malls, are struggling to compete as shoppers migrate online.

Retina's founder Michael Greenberg also created fundraising tool ScaleFunder.

Courtesy Retina

The changes in the retail industry nearly toppled Forever 21. The company, known for fast fashion, was pummeled by online rivals like Revolve and others. After filing for bankruptcy, the company this week entered a tentative $81 million deal to sell its assets to a consortium including mall owners.

But even as malls, the traditional hub for commerce, have emptied out, the high-price of acquiring and keeping customers online has been a challenge for retailers. Smaller companies that aren't as well funded are at a disadvantage when competing with giants like Amazon.

Retina hopes to fill in those gaps. It recently launched an app on Shopify, the e-commerce platform used by many online sellers. The three-year old company was founded by Michael Greenberg, who also created fundraising tool ScaleFunder.

"There's a cataclysm happening at the intersection of e-commerce and retail," Greenberg said. "Companies like mine are trying to help other businesses trying to compete with the sort of data science and technical prowess of Amazon."

Greenberg said customers are willing to provide companies data "if they get more personalized experience with less friction" in the transaction.

"Not all customers are created equal and, in fact, a majority of them are poison for the business," Greenberg said in an announcement. "Retina determines which customers will spend more as soon as they make their first purchase, not six months from now."

Crosscut Ventures managing partner Rick Smith said in a statement that technology's return on investment was "unmatched in the industry."

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Streaming Platforms Are Losing Even When They’re Winning

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
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Surprisingly, this still wasn’t enough to fully put the streaming service in the black. Higher content costs at Peacock led to a 25.5% drop in EBITDA for its entire division. We can’t know exactly how much of that relates specifically to Peacock content – Comcast doesn’t break down the numbers that way – but it’s a considerable chunk.

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Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: Community Hires New CEO, Bento Box Welcomes President
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

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Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Raises
Image by Joshua Letona

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