🛍️ Remark, 📧 Orita, 🤩 Starface
Welcome to our monthly recap—exploring the trends, behaviors, and technology shaping the future of commerce.
Congratulations to Remark on securing $10.3M in funding. Remark is pairing shoppers with high-quality product experts via an asynchronous live chat with one of 50,000 human experts — artists, musicians, stylists, golfers, ski instructors — who can discuss items just like a retail staffer would do. Remark also trains artificial intelligence models on those experts to create personas that can answer questions with the same style of their human counterparts. Sugar Capital participated in Remark’s funding along with Spero Ventures, Stripe, and others.
Introducing SugarRush - your new AI Editor-in-Chief
SugarRush simplifies your inbox by filtering, editing, and summarizing the newsletters you love into a personalized feed of essential insights. Here are the top stories from the last few weeks:
🔍 Musk's X: Free Speech Defender or Business Tool? nytimes - Insight into how Elon Musk might be leveraging X (formerly Twitter) to benefit his broader business empire, including Tesla and SpaceX.
🛍️ TikTok's Favorite: Inkey List Lip Plumping Balm wwd - The Inkey List releases TikTok-famous lip plumping balm in three new tints for spring, promising flattering shades for all beauty enthusiasts.
🔄 A Glimpse Into a Future Macy's retail dive - Macy's shares financial outlook and strategies for the select stores that will remain post-major downsizing over the next three years.
💭 The Quest for the Next Cult Sneaker hypebeast - Analysis on what could succeed the adidas Samba as the new cult sneaker, with insights into potential candidates based on current market trends and consumer preferences.
👗 The Return of Victoria's Secret's Fashion Innovation the cut - Victoria's Secret plans to rejuvenate its runway show, merging content, commerce, and media in a fresh format, despite past controversies and current financial challenges.
🛁 Relax with POPSUGAR x Walmart walmart - Unwind in luxury with POPSUGAR’s new bath and body line at Walmart, featuring eucalyptus shower steamers and magnesium bath flakes.
▶︎ Check it out here: https://sugarrush.ai
Portfolio Companies in the News
🛍 Remark puts thousands of human product experts into AI form - TechCrunch
🍀 Lucky Beverage Co Founder & Plane Crash Survivor Remembers What Happened on Delta 191 - People
🌎 Remark, Nostra, and EcoCart named to The Leading 100 List
🥇 Violet Won Gold @thestevieawards in the 22nd annual American Business Awards for API Management Solutions - LinkedIn
📧 Orita crosses 100 customers
🤩 The Gen-Z Whisperer: How Julie Schott, Founder of Starface, Made Acne a Laughing Matter - BoF
🤩 How the Founder of Starface pimple patches is building an empire of Gen Z brands - Fast Company
⚰️ Chptr Wants to Upend the Traditional Obit Market - Funeral Service Insider
🍳 Caraway Prep Set Review: Perfect for Small Kitchens - Food & Wine
🚀 Motion: Join Motion for Make Ads That Convert 2024 - Motion
🧸 Grüns launches sugar-free gummies - Instagram
👃 TikTok Star Monet McMichael Enters Her ‘Rose Era’ With Snif Fragrance Collaboration- WWD
🫒 Brightland: Best Olive Oils of 2024 - NYMag
🐺 Blackwolf Brothers Start Side Hustle, Build Business With $50M Revenue - Entrepreneur