Read more about our portfolio company, RADAR.
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RADAR’s real-time inventory intelligence platform combines proprietary hardware, software, and analytics to deliver 99% item-level inventory accuracy for retailers. The company also named Abi Viswanathan as its Chief Financial Officer.
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--RADAR, the AI-powered retail intelligence platform, announced it has raised $170 million in Series B funding, co-led by Gideon Strategic Partners and Nimble Partners, and with participation from Align Ventures, bringing the company’s valuation to $1 billion.
For decades, physical retail has operated without the data layer e-commerce takes for granted: an opportunity RADAR is unlocking by bringing real-time precision to the 80 percent of global commerce that still happens in physical stores. By delivering 99 percent item-level inventory accuracy in real-time, RADAR gives retailers continuous visibility into inventory location and availability across every store.
That foundation also enables stores to operate in an entirely new way. With RADAR, shelves get restocked before they run empty, online orders are fulfilled with greater accuracy, and store teams can spend more time serving customers. The store becomes a more intelligent, efficient, and responsive environment, one that helps retailers improve execution, strengthen omnichannel performance, and deliver a customer experience that feels as seamless as online.
“In 2026, operating without real-time intelligence in physical retail means choosing to leave billions of dollars on the table. RADAR is changing that,” said Spencer Hewett, Founder and CEO of RADAR. “Today, we’re empowering retailers to run stores with the same precision as e-commerce. This round signals market conviction in the scale of the opportunity and accelerates our ability to extend that advantage across retail and beyond.”
“The physical world has long been a blind spot in an otherwise data-driven economy,” Erik Oros, Chief Investment Officer of Gideon Capital. “RADAR is closing that gap. Starting with retail, the company is delivering clear, measurable ROI today while building a proprietary data advantage that strengthens with every deployment. We believe that combination positions RADAR to define the category and become a foundational layer of real-time intelligence across physical industries.”
RADAR’s platform combines proprietary overhead sensors, software, and an analytics layer into a single end-to-end system. Sensors mounted on store ceilings read every tagged item continuously, tracking precise location and movement across the sales floor, stockroom, and fitting rooms. That data flows directly into RADAR’s software layer, which converts raw location signals into operational action: automated replenishment alerts, omnichannel fulfillment routing, loss prevention triggers, and merchandising intelligence, all integrated into the systems retailers already use.
Currently, RADAR is deployed across more than 1,400 stores with major U.S. retailers including American Eagle Outfitters and Old Navy.
“As the first retailer to implement RADAR technology fleet-wide, American Eagle has unlocked greater inventory visibility, empowered our associates and sharpened our insights,” said Jay Schottenstein, Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, American Eagle Outfitters. “With inventory digitized in real-time, we have enabled our creative, operations and technology teams to place their focus on creating seamless, customer-first experiences that define the American Eagle brand.”
RADAR processes more than 100 billion item-level events per day, building the only dataset that captures how customers interact with products in the physical world. This is physical AI applied to retail, a system that continuously learns from every item it tracks, giving retailers and brands the foundation to forecast demand, optimize assortments, and act on consumer behavior in ways that were previously only possible with online shopping.
“RADAR brings real time data to retailers which operated like consumers before the internet,” said John Burbank, Partner and Founder at Nimble Partners.
The company plans to use this round to accelerate deployments across retailers, advance next-generation sensor hardware, expand AI analytics capabilities, accelerate autonomous checkout development, and grow across Canada, EMEA, and Latin America.
The company also announced the appointment of Abi Viswanathan as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), as it enters the next phase of growth. Viswanathan brings a strong track record of building the financial and operational backbone of high-growth technology companies. He was previously the CFO of leading autonomous vehicle company Nuro, where he helped scale the company to an $8.6 billion valuation. He was also an early member of Uber’s Strategic Finance team, supporting global expansion across multiple geographies and business lines.
Additional quotes:
“Inventory is one of the largest and most critical assets for retailers, yet it is often managed with surprisingly low levels of accuracy,” said Abi Viswanathan, CFO of RADAR. “RADAR is changing that by giving leading retailers the real-time, high-accuracy inventory data they need to operate more efficiently, improve store productivity, serve customers better, and compete more effectively. I’m excited to leverage my experience scaling high-growth technology companies to help RADAR build on its momentum and scale through this next chapter.”
“We’re thrilled to deepen our support of RADAR as they tackle one of the largest and most overlooked inefficiencies in global retail,” said Ben Bryce, Founder and Managing Partner at Align Ventures. “Physical stores have operated for decades without real-time visibility into inventory and operations, and the pressure to match the precision of e-commerce is only accelerating.”
