citybiz+ Tysons, Va.-based Datasembly Closes $16 Million Series B Funding

Datasembly, which provides retailers market intelligence to determine effective pricing, has closed a $16 million Series B round led by Atlanta, Ga.-based Noro-Moseley Partners. Other participating investors included Baltimore-based Grotech Ventures, Tampa, Fla.-based Topmark Partners and Wellesley, Mass-based Staley Capital.

The Tysons, Va., firm has so far raised $34.8 million. Prior investors include:

  • LaunchCapital, of New Haven, Conn.;
  • Valor Equity Partners of Chicago;
  • Valor Siren Ventures, a joint venture of Starbucks and Valor Equity Partners;
  • San Mateo, Calif.-based Twenty5Twenty;
  • San Francisco-based Craft Ventures; and
  • Evan Brown of Canada’s BMO Capital Markets

“Even through more complicated economic times, Datasembly has continued to grow and scale, underscoring the demand for our data and tools,” said co-founder and CEO Ben Reich, an engineer who previously worked at retail analytics firm Applied Predictive Technologies.

“While the broader funding environment has cooled, Datasembly has still been attractive to new investors because of the value and differentiated offerings we bring to the marketplace,” added the math graduate from Cornell University.

Founded by Reich and his fellow engineer at Applied Predictive Technologies, Dan Gallagher, Datasembly got a boost from the Covid-19 pandemic when retailers struggled with a variety of challenges. It then famously predicted the death of the so-called “12-week lag,” alluding to manual data collection methods, and the absolute imperative of “real-time, hyperlocal, granular data” for retailers to conquer pricing challenges. Datasembly claims collecting billions of price points from over 160,000 grocery and retail stores, and 200 retail banners nationwide, and a database comprising information of over three years.

Datasembly’s “platform simulates a human user navigating a retailer’s website or mobile app, by picking an individual store location and browsing every item in every aisle, collecting price, promotion, and availability for each item at every location,” Reich told Natfluence in a 2021 interview.

“Datasembly provides the best-in-class solution, collecting and normalizing billions of data points weekly,” said John Ale, general partner at Noro-Moseley Partners, adding that consumer packaged goods brands and retailers need comprehensive, cost-effective, real-time pricing and product availability data to survive.

citybiz+ Sponsors

Grotech Ventures
Founded in 1984, Grotech Ventures has raised over $1.4 billion, and made over 150 portfolio investments and 40-plus exits. It eyes opportunities to invest between $500,000 and $5 million in cybersecurity, fintech, supply chain, logistics and software startups. Its recent portfolio investments include Cloverly, Fount Global, pgEdge, Speedscale, Apkudo, Sunstone Credit and Tellius. Grotech’s recent exits include Perishable Shipping Solutions, of Youngstown, Ohio; Urjanet, of Atlanta, Ga.; and Youreka, of Baltimore.

citybiz+ Cohorts

Industry veteran Lawson DeVries has served as Grotech’s managing general partner since 2020. He has been closely associated with a number of Grotech portfolio companies that have been acquired, among others, by giants such as Cisco and Oracle.

LaunchCapital
Founded in 2008 by Elon Boms, LaunchCapital, based in New Haven, Conn., has focused on seed capital for startups. It has backed over 200 companies so far.