🚀 ReFiBuy Announces $13.6m Seed Round: Top CommerceTech Firms: New Road Capital Partners, Ridge Ventures, Silicon Road Ventures and Commerce Ventures Participate 💪
Oversubscribed round will drive further innovations in Agentic Commerce Optimization and allow ReFiBuy to scale product and GTM teams.
Good morning Retailgentic readers! Today the big news in Agentic Commerce comes from our own backyard. Before we get into the details, a little backstory for everyone…
A long time ago in a galaxy not too far away (in North Carolina actually)….
Editorial note: Yes it’s not May 4th anymore, but shouldn’t EVERY day be Star Wars day?
James, Cameron, Derek and I (all ChannelAdvisor alumni) started ReFiBuy way way (this story takes place in AI time) back in January of 2025 with the idea that Agent-based systems (agentic we call it now) could solve some of ecommerce’s hardest problems. We had an inkling that the best application of these solutions could be what we now all call Agentic Commerce.
We were fortunate to raise a pre-seed round and announced that in mid-March. Fun fact, it was led by ChannelAdvisor’s B investors, G20. We then quickly launched our first product Commerce Intelligence Engine at the first RetailClub in September of 2025
As we entered 2026 and after Google’s big splashy UCP news at NRF, we knew the time had come to not only double down, but super-de-duper quadruple down on Agentic Commerce Optimization.
In early March we started the process of raising a Seed round.
ReFiBuy’s Seed Round Details
Today we are announcing that we’ve raised a Seed round. What we’re most excited about, that I’m pretty sure for the first time ever, all four of the early stage RetailTech/EcommTech investors have invested in one company! Let’s start with the new RetailTech/EcommTech investors:
New Road Capital Partners - New Road led the round and we’ve really enjoyed getting to know everyone at the Bentonville based firm and already learned a ton from them. Everyone at New Road eats, sleeps and breathes retail from the back office supply chain to the frond-end user experience and all the pieces in the middle. New Road has a big investment theme around Agentic Commerce and found us through their research
Ridge Ventures - Based out of Silicon Valley, Ridge has had an Agentic Commerce Optimization investment thesis since July 2025 (maybe earlier, that’s when they first reached out to us). They are avid Retailgentic readers and it’s been fun to debate the nuanced details of ACO, strategy, how the market is moving with the team. We’re really excited to work with Alex, Eli and the rest of the crew at Ridge Ventures as we work towards building ReFiBuy to the next phase.
Silicon Road - Also new this round, and based out of Atlanta, Silicon Road is self-described as focused on CommerceTech. Their DNA goes back to founder Sid’s company SPI that was a full-service tech solution partner focused on retail from the go-go years of 1994-2016. From there it’s about as Atlanta as you can get with the ATDC, lots of Georgia Tech, Coke and orange aprons around. We were introduced shortly after our pre-seed by a mutual connection and have enjoyed getting to know this team more deeply.
Commerce Ventures - Another Silicon Valley firm, the name Matt Nichols may be familiar to the Retailgentic podcast audience as he’s been the guest for not only one but TWO of our top rated/viewed/downloaded pods (here and here if you want to catch up). As their name implies, they are also 100% focused on CommerceTech. They also publish a ton of great strategic thought pieces on the future of retail/digital like their Commerce Continuum framework. Independently, but very similar to New Road, Ridge, Commerce Ventures has had a long-time thesis around ACO. Like G20, Commerce Ventures has been with us since the earliest days and we’re thankful for their support!
Outside of the CommerceTech focused investors, our good friends in Boston, G20, continued their early support by contributing materially to this round in in both capital as well as advice and wisdom through the process. Also out of Atlanta, Knoll Ventures continue to be very supportive and participated in both our pre-seed and the seed. Finally we were able to add the Silicon Valley ex-Googler run firms: VELA Partners (who uses and an AI to find and score companies!) and Incubate Fund that has deep relationships with brands, retailers and tech companies in Japan. We also had the support from many angel investors in the industry which is great to be working with so many OGs - thank you!
Thank YOU!
Many of our customers have come either directly from the Retailgentic community or via word-of-mouth from Retailgentic subscribers. Thank you for your support. Every time you like, forward, comment or engage with our content, it gives us important feedback for where the industry is going that helps keep us out there on the bleeding edge making sure we are researching the latest and greatest so we can pass on what we find to you. The content engine then feeds directly into the product roadmap.
What Does This Mean for Retailgentic!?
Great question, I’ll wrap up and hand this one over to huge Retailgentic fan, Kylo Ren to explain our strategy in very detailed terms for Retailgentic going forward.
May the Force be with you…ALWAYS!