UK’s AI-powered inventory platform Autone bags €15.6M from General Catalyst, Speedinvest, YCombinator, others

London-based Autone, an AI-powered inventory management platform, announced on Wednesday that it has secured $17M (approximately €15.6M) in a Series A funding round led by General Catalyst, bringing the total funding raised to $20M (approximately €18.3M).

All existing investors from Autone’s Seed round also reinvested in its Series A.

The list includes Speedinvest, YCombinator, Seedcamp, 2100VC, Motier, Financière Saint James, and notable business angels from LVMH, Sephora, and Moncler.

The UK company will use the funds to accelerate product development and continue its expansion and hiring across the US and Europe.

The company’s US expansion will be supported by General Catalyst’s expertise in the sector as an early investor in commerce giants, including Demandware, NewStore, BigCommerce, and Warby Parker.

The funding announcement comes as the company’s Autone’s revenues have increased sixfold since the last funding round.

Inventory planning is essential in retail to maintain margins and meet customer demand.

However, managing inventory has become more challenging for mid-market retailers and premium brands.

Teams often make critical decisions based on inadequate data, leading to overproduction, overstocking, and margin erosion.

Here’s where Autone comes into play!

Autone: AI-powered inventory management platform

Founded by Adil Bouhdadi and Harry Glucksmann-Cheslaw in 2021, Autone is an AI-powered inventory management platform helping brands predict demand, reduce waste and increase sales.  

The platform collates 100M data points per customer, which it uses to demonstrate the impact of changing a single input on the bottom line.

By integrating all internal and external data, the platform uses predictive analytics and machine learning to identify trends, forecast demand, and anticipate inventory needs.

Brands using autone report up to a 55 per cent reduction in inventory, a 25 per cent increase in accuracy in forecasting, a 30 per cent sales increase, and 45 hours a week of manual work, saved per customer.

The platform uses AI and LLMs to explain the data insights behind stock recommendations, which can then be executed with a single click. 

Currently, Autone is today trusted by more than 50 global brands such as Courreges,  Roberto Cavalli,  Stussy, and Zadig & Voltaire to reduce inventory waste, increase sales, and enhance efficiency.

Autone CEO, Adil Bouhdadi says,  “Autone speaks the language of the people using it—not just the C-suite. An intuitive platform that turns passive data into powerful actions A place where retail professionals can see the ROI of their work and feel confident in their decisions. We’ve taken a step back to look at what AI can really mean for our users. Retailers sit on piles of data that can simply not be leveraged with most tools, let alone spreadsheets.”

“Autone unlocks retailer profitability by reducing inventory levels while improving sales. To us, AI is not just about automation and prediction; It’s about empowering the expert within each user. The future of retail extends beyond sales figures and inventory levels; it’s deeply intertwined with our responsibility towards the environment. We aim to show the entire industry that selling better doesn’t mean more inventory but smarter inventory,” adds Bouhdadi.

The investor

General Catalyst supports founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond to build companies that withstand the test of time.

The firm has helped support the growth of businesses such as Airbnb, Deliveroo, Guild, Gusto, Hubspot, Illumio, Lemonade, Livongo, Oscar, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker.

Zeynep Yavuz, General Catalyst, says, “Inventory management is one of the most critical and increasingly complex challenges in retail. With our investment in Autone, we are partnering with what we think is an exceptional team that stands out with its deep retail expertise and a vision to help mid-market retailers make better business decisions using data. We are excited to support Autone in their journey to become a leading force in AI-powered retail technology.”