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Mobile retail platform NewStore secures $50 million in Series B funding.

Leading the round are Activant Capital, joined by returning investors General Catalyst and Stephan Schambach, who founded NewStore in 2015. “The future of retail is mobile, and in our minds, there’s no longer a separation between shopping online and retail,” Schambach tells BoF. "It really needs to be brought together. The only way for retail to take on players like Amazon is to provide an equal or better experience."

The German entrepreneur and e-commerce pioneer has a successful track record in merging retail and technology. Schambach founded Intershop in 1992, which built the first standard software for online shopping. He also founded Demandware, which put retail in the cloud, a business that sold to Salesforce for $2.8 billion in 2016. Now, with NewStore, Schambach wants to solve the omnichannel problems facing many retailers and brands by delivering end-to-end shopping solutions to consumers.

Luxury brands have been a bit asleep at the wheel for a long time.

“Shopping has become a streaming activity,” Schambach says. "Consumers want to check inventory, browse products, place orders and write reviews at their own convenience on a mobile phone. They can create a shopping experience at any time they want, tailored specifically for them. Think of it as ‘Streaming Retail.’"

Steve Sarracino, partner at Activant Captial agrees: “Consumers demand seamless experiences across channels, and brands are ill equipped to deliver,” he says. "We see mobile capturing an ever-growing portion of the $24 trillion worldwide retail market, and NewStore is at the epicentre of that.”

NewStore will use the Series B investment to expand its platform and roll out the solution to retailers looking to realise their omnichannel aspirations. "[Luxury] brands have been a bit asleep at the wheel for a long time," says Schambach. "The buying experience is part of the luxury experience nowadays. Luxury buyers demand super-convenient, frictionless experiences and immediacy. What we're inventing is a new user experience and we make shopping fun again." — Christopher Morency

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