We are an investment firm dedicated to the consumer and retail sectors, emphasising the significant opportunities for growth and innovation within these markets. With a focus on partnering with founders, we want to use our expertise to help build successful companies and navigate the evolving landscape of consumer and retail.

AI is transforming consumer markets by making high-cost services more accessible and affordable. This parallels past tech revolutions, like personal computing and the gig economy, where innovation and cost reduction spurred market expansion. AI's rapid, scalable advancements, championed by major companies, are creating massive new demand. The market potential is vast, with history hinting at billion-dollar opportunities—and we're excited to support founders shaping this future.

The retail sector is in constant evolution, shifting in response to the ebb and flow of consumer demands, macroeconomic factors and increasingly, environmental concerns.As the environmental footprint of both retailers and consumers comes under growing scrutiny, we’re closely watching a handful of exciting technologies poised to address these challenges, helping the industry become more sustainable.

The customer contact landscape has undergone a substantial transformation. The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in natural language processing (NLP) and generative AI, has reshaped the customer contact landscape in ways that seemed futuristic just one year ago. This prompted us to revisit and update our research, resulting in our new Customer Contact 3.0 report.

At True, we pride ourselves on being specialist investors in the Consumer and Retail sectors. Many associate "Consumer" with D2C physical products, but the reality is much broader. In this blog, Mike Martin, Director in the VC team shares more on our investment strategy and remit.

By 2030, environmental and social impact will be the core factors dictating consumer behaviours for purchasing decisions and personal actions. Sustainability and responsibility will be non-negotiable for retail propositions. Businesses will need to fundamentally change existing linear business models by adopting resale, rental, repair and recycling initiatives where appropriate.

Major sporting heroes are increasingly investing in food and drink brands, giving these products star power and health credibility. Joe Seager-Dupuy, Director of VC Investment at True, shares insights in The Grocer's recent article on how brands can cut through the noise and stand out by leveraging the influence of famous athletes. Learn how these high-profile deals begin and the impact they can have on your brand.

Retail, both in the UK and globally, has transformed rapidly in recent years from a business primarily focused on real-world interactions to one led by technology. The latest stage of the industry’s digital acceleration is coming from the adoption of artificial intelligence technologies. Owen Eddershaw, Innovation Associate at True, comments on adaptive AI in the latest Retail Week report, AI Adopters.

We recently held a CEO Technology & Innovation Insights Session, providing a critical platform for 30 retail leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by technological advancements. Following a presentation from Matt Truman on the current state of Retail, we focused on three topics presented by Danielle Le Toullec, Jamie Campbell and Liam Buswell: The Future of Brand Engagement, Shrink and Colleague Safety and Back-Office Automation.

At True, we understand the challenges of securing that first crucial call with investors. In this article, we dive into the essentials of crafting a standout pitch deck. Learn how to align with our investment thesis, articulate your market opportunity, highlight your team's strengths, and more.

As part of the quick founder questions series – or QFQs – Maddyness spoke to Jean-Michel Chalayer, founder of Jena about recent investment, backing solopreneurs and the importance of flex culture!

To explore the major shift in the consumer data landscape and what retailers and brands should be doing in response, we sat down with StJohn Deakins, Founder and CEO of DataSapien, a company developing technology that delivers hyper-personalisation while prioritising data privacy and compliance.

With climate high on the corporate agenda, many retail businesses are setting ambitious net-zero targets. Setting a commitment is one thing - especially when it’s public - but achieving it is another altogether. In this article, we're uncovering the fundamental role innovation will play in tackling the climate challenge for retail.

Technology can be a powerful force in solving the many climate challenges we face, and the climate startup ecosystem is large and complex, covering a vast range of themes. Always on the hunt for the best tech out there, our Innovation team have taken a dive into some of the most notable and interesting, so read on to find out more.

Marketing budgets took a hit in 2023 as businesses looked to reduce costs. That means marketers are more focused than ever on getting the most from their investment, not just in advertising but in talent and technology as well.

By 2030, the average consumer will have creative capabilities beyond what is possible even for large numbers of specialists today. We see the 'consumer as creator' trend as an enabler for three key opportunity areas: the empowerment of consumer creativity, peer-to-peer services, and the democratisation of influence.

Following our recent event, there was a lot of interest around how our portfolio company, Sneak, had built such an engaged community. Our Head of Marketing, Danielle Le Toullec, sat down with Lauren Carroll, Head of Comms at Sneak to delve deeper into their community development and growth off the back of one of the brand’s biggest ever campaigns. The Halloween-themed drop - Satanic Cult - drove enormous community engagement, leading to a UK sellout in just 18 hours & global sellout in 1 week.

There are countless factors currently affecting online retailers. From trying to navigate the post-Covid decline in ecommerce penetration to the wider retail landscape facing a storm of downward-demand and supply-side pressures. Innovation Analyst, Molly Walsh, has delved into the world of online customer retention. She has identified five key aspects of the customer journey and how retailers can utilise technology to prevent customer abandonment online.

Last year, over 150,000 new all-women-led companies were founded – more than ever before - but statistics show that over 95% of early-stage funding goes to all-male-founded start-ups. So how do you get ahead of the game as a female founder? Here are some top tips from someone who has done it before.

There are several macro trends currently affecting the workforce. Whether employee or employer, everyone is trying to negotiate post pandemic working. Innovation Analyst, Robyn Wilson has spent the last three months diving into the world of employee engagement and has identified four key workplace areas that can be enhanced through innovation to improve retention, engagement and output.