The Leading 100 | 2023 (Old)

Presented In Partnership With —

The Direct 60 are Brand Leaders at the Forefront of the Direct-to-Consumer Pivot.

The Leading 100 List recognizes high impact technology start-ups that are transforming the direct-to-consumer business model and driving business value for brands as well as retailers. These companies are solving business problems, powering growth and helping brands deliver on customer expectations through innovative, accessible and powerful technology solutions. 

All companies were vetted and selected using a rigorous methodology.  Using a combination of company interviews, nomination forms and company data, The selection committee, led by The Lead’s Chief Content Officer, Sonal Gandhi, conducted an in depth analysis. The process included a detailed look at each company’s business with a decision making criteria based on Innovation, Business Impact, Commercialization & Customers, Teams and experience, Competition, Media Buzz and Investor Value Creation. 

The Leading 100 will be honored at The Lead Innovation Summit on July 12th & 13th, the flagship event where the entire fashion, beauty, CPG,  and retail innovation community will converge to engage the future of the direct-to-consumer business model. Want to meet innovators like these and more? Join us this summer to experience the future of direct-to-consumer. Register now: https://summit.the-lead.co/

Company Name

Funding

CEO(s)

Company Description

Catch

Nico Perdomo

Payment service that allows both merchants & consumers to save money by cutting out credit card processing fees.

Link Money

$30M

Eric Shoykhet

Pay by Bank solution that provides merchants with an alternate payment solution up to 70% less expensive than traditional payment methods and enables customers to pay with their bank accounts.

ReFundid

$14.2 M

Brad Karney

A service that allows a customer to access their refund instantly before they’ve even sent back their return.

Skipify

$11.1 M

Ryth Martin

AI-powered technology that creates a streamlined checkout experience.

Company Name

Funding

CEO(s)

Company Description

Browzwear

$35 M

Avihay Feld

A 3D apparel design solution that allows you to create 3D models of garments and accessories.

Curated For You

$5.9 M

Katy Aucoin

An eCommerce platform that measures consumer motivations using machine learning, then uses the data to provide real-time personalized product recommendations.

FIT:MATCH.ai

$10 M

Haniff Brown

FIT:MATCH AI is a patented platform that uses a combination of depth sensors and computer vision to match shoppers to the best-fitting products for their 3D body shape.

HEXA 3D

$27.2 M

Yehiel Atias

Full tech stack designed to create, manage, display and analyze your 3D projects.

Humankind

$4.2 M

David Weissman

Humankind is a conversational commerce platform that combines AI and human expertise to supercharge retailer’s sales conversations with shoppers.

Kerv

$34 M

Gary Mittman

Video platform that utilizes AI and ML techniques to transform any video content into a fully interactive experience.

Maropost

$1 M

Ross Andrew Paquette

A cloud-based revenue optimization suite that increases multi-channel customer engagement using integrated marketing and sales automation to provide tools, strategic guidance, and support needed to create more personalized customer experiences.

Obsess

$13.5 M

Neha Singh

Obsess is an experiential e-commerce platform enabling brands to create fully branded, immersive 3D virtual stores that drive brand awareness, customer engagement and loyalty.

Rebuy

$21.4 M

John Erck

Obsess is an experiential e-commerce platform enabling brands to create fully branded, immersive 3D virtual stores that drive brand awareness, customer engagement and loyalty.

Revuse

$30 M

Boaz Grinvald

An AI-enabled software that analyzes customer reviews and online opinions to deliver customer experience intel and insights.

Thankful.ai

$12 M

Theodore Mico

Automation software created to improve online customer service, using artificial intelligence to deflect half of inbound queries that are repetitive tasks, leaving customer care agents more time to solve difficult issues.

Vizit

$10 M

Jehan Hamedi

Helps brands measure, understand, and optimize the impact of their visual content using AI technology.

Vntana

$12.5 M

Ashley Crowder

3D Content Management System (CMS) designed to easily upgrade existing IT infrastructure for 3D scalability.

Yogi

$7.2 M

Gautam Kanumuru

Yogi is an AI-powered customer feedback analytics service that processes online and offline feedback sources.

Company Name

Funding

CEO(s)

Company Description

Daasity

$20.7 M

Dan LeBlanc

Centralizes a brand’s data so that it can be more easily analyzed and pushed to key marketing channels.

Fairing

$4.5 M

Matt Bahr

Uses survey data to deliver consumer insights regarding personalization, conversion, customer experience, and attribution, while keeping responses linked to the shopper and their transactions.

FlagshipRTL

Justin Abrams

A SaaS platform that pairs retail brands’ first party data with machine learning algorithms to optimize retention and revenue.

Haus Analytics

$5.8 M

Zach Epstein

Analytics platform designed to advise brands on investments.

Lexer

$33.8 M

David Chinn

Lexer provides a customer-centric view, and the tools to analyse data to better understand and engage with customers.

Nostra.ai

$4.2 M

Arthur Root

Conversion optimization software that uses AI to optimize your Shopify website.

Pairzon

Galit Arizon

By consolidating fragmented in-store and online data sources into a unified dashboard, this AI-powered platform converts omnichannel transactions into optimized digital audiences that optimize performance.

Seek.ai

$7.5 M

Sarah Nagy

AI-powered data solution that automatically generates and maintains code for answering ad-hoc questions, built on company-specific foundation models that easily integrates with popular database vendors and collaboration tools.

SoundCommerce

$35.9 M

Eric Best

A platform that unifies omnichannel data across systems, functions, partners and geographies to provide better analytics and improve personalization.

Company Name

Funding

CEO(s)

Company Description

Archive

$24 M

Emily Gittins

Archive is a technology company that enables brands to build and scale omni-channel resale programs that are financially and environmentally sustainable.

buywith

$9.5 M

Adi Ronen Almagor

A livestream shopping platform enabling retailers and brands to engage with new audiences and increase sales through influencer-led live shopping events and one-to-one sessions with brands’ representatives, held natively on their websites

Carro

$52.4 M

David Perry

Connects participating Shopify stores together to enable cross-store selling, allowing brands to partner, revenue split, and sell a larger assortment of products.

Chord

$33 M

Bryan Mahoney

A commerce-as-a-service software that offers headless commerce technology and access to meaningful first-party data for both operators and developers.

Constructor.io

$61.1 M

Eli Finkelshteyn

AI-powered product discovery platform designed to increase conversions by personalizing user experiences.

Crossing Minds

$13.5 M

Alexandre Robicquet

An AI-powered recommendation engine that can be integrated into existing tech stacks.

Cym.bio

$27 M

Roy Avidor

Drop ship and marketplace automation platform designed for digital sales

Drop

$5.5 M

Derrick Fung

A social commerce platform that allows brands & creators to engage with their Instagram following through automated direct messages.

Feel

$4 M

Oren Harnevo

Feel helps online businesses drive incremental revenue by adding a ‘buy with an expert’ experience to their website.

Recurate

$17.5 M

Adam Siegel

Recurate is a Resale Operating System enabling brands to create a circular eco-system by integrating peer-to-peer, take-back, and several other resale models.

Retention.com

Adam Robinson

Retention.com offers email-based retargeting to help brand increase revenue from cart abandonment and grow their email lists.

RevLifter

$11.8 M (£9.5 M)

Simon Bird

Platform that uses AI to analyze a user’s onsite behaviour and deliver personalized deals in real-time

Rutter

$28.5 M

Peter Zhou

A universal API designed to integrate with any commerce, accounting, or payments platform, enabling users to connect and view of all ot their business’ data in one place.

Shoppinggives

$8.2 M

Ronny Sage

Allows businesses to build a custom and compliant giving experience by donating a percentage of each purchase to a nonprofit that the customer selects during checkout.

Smartrr

$17 M

Gabriella Tegen

A Shopify subscription app built to increase LTV with out-of-the-box subscription programs and an enhanced customer account portal experience.

Tapcart

$65.1 M

Eric Netsch

SaaS platform that enables e-commerce merchants to launch and manage mobile apps for their brands.

TryNow

$24 M

Benjamin Davis

TryNow lets shoppers try products before they pay, risk-free for both the shopper and the merchant.

Wizard

$50 M

Melissa Bridgeford

AI-powered SMS commerce platform that empowers brands to engage, transact, and market to their customers via text.

Company Name

Funding

CEO(s)

Company Description

Anyvl

$30.8 M

Rodney Manzo

Supply chain visibility software designed to facilitate real-time collaboration between teams, suppliers and technology.

Cogsy

$6.6 M

Adii Pienaar

An inventory optimization and operations platform designed for Shopify merchants.

Disco

$25.8 M

Conner Sherline

AI-driven partnership platform that makes recommendations to consumers across brands.

Fuse Inventory

$5.7 M

Rachel Liaw

An inventory planning system that pulls data from across systems and creates a predictive inventory plan.

Intelligems

$4.3 M

Drew Marconi

A suite of tools designed to help businesses run A/B tests to find optimal prices, discounts, shipping rates.

Syrup Tech

$7.3 M

James Theuerkauf

Predictive software for inventory decision-making in commerce, powered by AI/ML.

Toolio

$10.3 M

Eytan Daniyalzade

A cloud-based merchandising platform that automates critical workflows, provides real-time insights, and enables remote collaboration

Company Name

Funding

CEO(s)

Company Description

Factored Quality

$5.6 M

Prince Ghosh

A quality control platform for the fields of freight service, logistics, and supply chain management.

Fillogic

$9 M

Bill Thayer

Provider of local market logistics that converts underutilized space in shopping centers and malls into full-service, technology-enabled micro logistics hubs.

FloorFound

$15.2 M

Chris Ritcher

Software platform that facilitates returns and resales of oversized products for retailers by leveraging a network of freight, transportation, and logistics partners.

Floship

$9.2 M

Joshua Tsui

Global e-commerce logistics & fulfillment solution with an extensive circular supply chain ecosystem powered by intelligent technology.

Loop

$125.5 M

Jonathan Poma

A fully automated return portal that handles all aspects of the returns and refund process.

MasonHub

$21.6 M

Donny Salazar

The transformative operations platform for scaling beauty, wellness, and fashion brand.

Osa Commerce

Padmanabhan Raman

Unified Commerce Platform offering flexible blockchain solutions that consolidate entire supply chains for a seamless product journey.

Outerspace

$34.9 M

Ricky Choi

An OPS center providing combined 3PL services and a proprietary operations tech stack to help improve customer experience.

Pandion

$34.9 M

Scott Ruffin

A technology platform for e-commerce players to manage capacity problems and manage logistics using machine learning to avoid shipping delays and optimize delivery networks.

Pipe 17

$8 M

Mohamad Afshar

Omnichannel order operations platform for brands and fulfillment providers.

Company Name

Funding

CEO(s)

Company Description

Accrue Savings

$29.7 M

Michael Hershfield

Platform that allows brands to offer cash rewards to incentivize customers when they save up for big purchases.

Archive.com

$12 M

Paul Benigeri

AI-powered social commerce platform that automates digital marketing workflows.

Breinify

$11.2 M

Diane Keng

AI-powered personalization engine that creates a customized digital experience at an individual level across all marketing channels.

Checkmate

$5 M

Harry Dixon

The next-generation smart shopping tool that automatically aggregates all your eCommerce information, from checkout deals to shipment tracking.

Fondue

$10.5 M

Oren Charnoff

An app that embeds into existing software to offer customers CashBack rewards in place of discount codes that allows them to choose their incentives.

Hang

$10.5 M

Oren Charnoff

By harnessing game design and web3 technology, Hang provides brands with a way to make being a loyal customer fun and rewarding.

Howl Technologies

$27 M

Li Haslett Chen

Howl is a creative platform that provides commerce and payment tech to facilitate creator/brand collaboration

Kevel

$22.2 M

James Avery

Develops APIs that provide clients access to hundreds of ad serving features (campaign controls, ad decisioning, reporting & analytics) to power their ad supported revenue models, such as native ads, sponsored listings, display, audio and video.

Lily.ai

$39.5 M

Purva Gupta

AI platform that bridges the gap between brand and customer language by injecting customer-centric product attributes into site search engines and recommendation systems.

Measured

$21 M

Trevor Testwuide

Measured provides the only media optimization platform powered by incrementality intelligence so ecommerce brands can validate, plan, test and optimize advertising spend to drive business outcomes.

Northbeam

$15 M

Austin Harrison

Platform for marketing measurement and insight generation powered by machine learning

Okendo

$31.3 M

Matt Goodman

Okendo is the customer marketing platform used by top Shopify brands such as SKIMS, Netflix and Soylent for high-impact reviews and surveys.

Postscript

$106.2 M

Adam Turmer

An SMS platform that enables brands to create and manage SMS marketing campaigns with detailed analytics

Storyblok

$58 M

Dominik Angerer

A back-end only content management system supplying an easy user interface to create and manage content across any digital platform

Superfiliate

$3 M

Andy Cloyd

Creates personalized storefronts for a brand’s influencers, ambassadors, and affiliates in order to encourage word-of-mouth advertising

Toki

$2 M

Elise DeCamp

Customizable loyalty program offering one global login and a fun, gamified experience

Tracer

$20.5 M

Jeffrey Nicholson

Tracer is a data intelligence platform for marketers that provides a single source of truth across all your data, giving the power to make better decisions.

Treat.xyz

$8.5 M

Matthew Osman

AI generated ad creative providing super-personalized lifestyle photos

Vyrill

$4.6 M

Ajay Bam

A video marketing and intelligence platform powered by in-video search that enables enterprises to ‘search’ or ‘google’ inside any video on web or mobile to unlock video data

ZMO.ai

$8 M

Ella Zhang

ZMO.AI provides high-quality AI model images that help fashion brands improve efficiency and save cost, also provides AI virtual studio shooting for all products in marketing side.

Company Name

Funding

CEO(s)

Company Description

Adentro

Nitin Duggal

A marketing platform that pairs with in-store wifi to collect and analyze customer data based on their visit behavior

Leap

$53 M

Amish Tolia, Jared Golden

Retail-as-a-service platform that covers all aspects of store development and operations, including physical space, staffing, and managing all technology infrastructure.

Pathr.ai

$5.3 M

George Shaw

AI-powered Spatial Intelligence platform using anonymous location data to derive actionable real-time insights for operations and marketing.

Quorso

$12.6 M

Julian Mills

AI-powered productivity suite for store leaders that analyzes data to present a prioritized list of tasks, alerts, and opportunities to users.

Radar

$65 M

Spencer Hewett

An RFID and computer vision platform that automates inventory management, analytics and checkout in physical stores using a proprietary hardware and software platform with RFID tags and computer vision to track and precisely locate in-store inventory & people in real time with 99% accuracy.

Sparkplug

$11.5 M

Andrew Duffy

An incentive management platform for frontline employees that offers fully-automated sales incentives and easy vendor-sponsored rewards

Company Name

Funding

CEO(s)

Company Description

EcoCart

$17.5 M

Dane Baker

A sustainability software that calculates ecommerce brands’ ecological footprints through machine learning and then enables them or their customers to offset the emissions of their orders through front-end experiences.

LiquiDonate

$2.25 M

Diz Petit

LiquiDonate saves retailers and businesses money by donating their unsellable goods to local nonprofits.

SuperCircle

$12 M

Chloe Marie Songer

A tech and digitally enabled reverse logistics system that links retail with the waste management industry to help eliminate post-consumer clothing waste through recycling.

Company Name

Funding

CEO(s)

Company Description

Try Your Best

$11.8 M

Ty Haney

Community management platform that allows brands to directly connect with and reward fans for taking valuable actions.

Novel

$8 M

Roger Beaman

Web3 commerce platform creating both a fiat on-ramp to NFT drops and robust tokengating for products, discounts, and content.