Countdown to Shoptalk 2019: Startup Pitch Competition Participant Profile, Part 7 — LexSet and Mystore-E
Key Points
The Coresight Research team will attend and participate in Shoptalk 2019 March 3-6 in Las Vegas. The event brings together more than 8,000 attendees and more than 300 speakers to discuss rapid evolution of how consumers discover, shop and buy.
On March 3, Coresight Research CEO and Founder Deborah Weinswig will emcee a startup pitch competition featuring 15 early-stage technology companies. Judges will select two winners for a $25,000 prize.
Participating startups all have:
- $3 million or less in funding.
- Four years or less since founding.
- Scalable and innovative solutions for physical retail, omnichannel and e-commerce.
- Business-to-business (B2B) solutions.
Below, we look at two of the companies that will compete: LexSet and Mystore-E.
LexSet at a Glance
LexSet offers a visual search tool built and optimized for furniture sellers. Shoppers can upload an image – a single image or roomful of images – and LexSet will identify and show complementary furniture options. Integrated into furniture retail websites and apps, LexSet’s Automated Tagging and Visual Search tools seek to make discovery easier and more intuitive, while improving conversation.
LexSet is a graduate of New York City accelerator XRC Labs and was incubated as a spin-out of Seattle-based Intellectual Ventures.
What Problem Does LexSet Solve?
Furniture has the lowest e-commerce conversion rate at 1.5%, but also has the highest average order value (AOV). Furniture sellers often face difficulty accurately attributing and tagging products. LexSet’s Visual Search helps shoppers find the products, while LexSet Auto-Tagging adds accurate metadata to the products in their databases to improve SEO and site searchability.
Headquarters
New York City.
Funding Stage
Pre-Seed+
Business Model
LexSet charges a one-time non-recurring engineering fee of $5,000-$30,000, depending on the size and complexity of the data set. Once integrated into the client’s software interface, LexSet charges in tiered API call bundles, with a typical shopper generating $0.10-$0.60 in a given month, depending on usage.
Management Team
CEO Leslie Oliver Karpas has experience in 3D technology and the business side of running a startup. He started his career engineering sculptures for artist Anish Kapoor, and has leveraged his expertise in machine vision, robotics, 3D printing and industrial design.
CTO Francis Bitonti is an award-winning computational designer who has used generative design of 3D-printed products, some of which are showcased in the Smithsonian, Centre Pompidou, and other museums. Francis was the 2015 Wired Innovation Fellow.
Company Outlook
LexSet is working on pilots with several top furniture companies, including a major U.S. contract furniture seller and a large Swedish furniture company.
Mystore-E at a Glance
Mystore-E’s platform combines inventory, sales and other store data with unique business logic and machine learning to recommend product merchandising and display suggestions to position items shoppers most want in areas of the store where they are most likely to see them.
The company also launched an AI-based assistant called Tore-E that it says helps improve sales associate productivity. Tore-E assists the stores via a simple task-based and supervised application, giving retailers a tool to communicate with the store in real-time to make sure the store set-up matches customer needs, and offers the ability to connect with sales associates in real-time.
What Problem Does Mystore-E Solve?
Most store associates and managers do not have access to real-time communication and information systems, nor are they able to evaluate patterns and trends in productivity at the store level. Mystore-E’s AI-based platform gives store managers and associates information they can use to optimize store displays, while providing a communication tools for store associates to better understand customer wants and needs from company data. Tore-E supplies brands with a real-time communication tool that delivers accurate insights, predictions and sales-supporting data regarding in-store product performance to improve store set-up and sales associate productivity.
Headquarters
Tel Aviv.
Funding Stage
Series A (recently secured $2.2 million in seed funding led by Signet Jewelers).
Business Model
Monthly subscription based on fee per store and per user.
Management Team
Asaf Shapira, Co-founder and CEO.
Idan Sergi, Co-Founder and Head of Strategy and Business Development.
Company Outlook
The company is working with 10 retailers and operates in more than 100 stores in Israel and the US.