The story of Storefox.ai is a textbook example of how the Antler India Residency brings together two stellar co-founders who would have never met otherwise.
The seed of the idea for Storefox.ai took root during Jivitesh Jadwani's experience in the retail sector. While working at a Manyavar store, he witnessed firsthand the inefficiencies and revenue leakages stemming from a lack of real-time visibility into customer interactions and data-driven decision-making. Even simple yet effective customer-oriented gestures, such as offering refreshments to customers waiting in the lounge or cross-selling relevant items, were not performed by the retail staff.
Post Manyavar, Jivitesh’s entrepreneurial journey took him through the highs and lows of building his own QSR chain, which was ultimately disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This led him to realize the resilience and scalability of software solutions.
This realization led Jivitesh to explore the world of SaaS, where he joined a virtual event platform called Hubilo, gaining valuable experience in marketing, events, and operations. During this period, he conceptualized the idea of a retail intelligence platform that could leverage AI to capture and analyze in-store customer conversations. His starting thesis was simple but powerful. All data at retail stores is captured only post-billing, but there is a wealth of data in the pre-sales phase in the customer and sales rep conversations. What would it mean if this could be unlocked?
After multiple conversations with fellow entrepreneurs and mentors, he applied to the Antler Residency program to pursue this idea and find a co-founder with the technical prowess to complement his business acumen.
The Antler Alchemy
It was during the Antler Residency Program that Jivitesh met Nithin Saji, a seasoned engineer with a background in building retail enterprise applications using AI capabilities.
Nithin, who had previously led engineering teams at companies like Fabelio and Grab, brought a unique blend of technical expertise and retail industry experience to the table. His ability to build performant AI systems and his deep understanding of the retail landscape made him an ideal co-founder for Storefox.ai.
Through a series of conversations and brainstorming sessions facilitated by the Residency program, Jivitesh and Nithin recognized the synergies between them and the potential for a powerful collaboration. As Jivitesh recalls, "The Antler program provided us with a space to thoroughly evaluate our ideas and challenge our assumptions. Conversations with the Antler team pushed us to rethink our approach and broaden our market perspective."
The New Wave of AI and LLMs Meets Old-fashioned Offline Retail
Our conviction in the team is driven by our belief in the founders' execution capabilities and the immense potential of the retail analytics market. Our investment thesis is built on the following pillars:
- Storefox.ai's unique approach to analyzing in-store customer conversations sets them apart from the crowded space of video analytics solutions. By leveraging advancements in multimodal AI and conversational intelligence, the startup is well-positioned to capture a whitespace opportunity.
- Jivitesh and Nithin exhibit intense raw founder hustle, high agency, and deep retail context. Within three months, they built an MVP, secured pilots with Manyavar, Zivame, and Bluestone, and built a substantial waitlist of potential customers – a testament to their execution capabilities.
- The global retail analytics market is projected to reach $25 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 24%. As omnichannel expansion drives retail growth and digital-first brands expand their offline footprint, there is an increasing demand for sophisticated in-store analytics solutions.
- Storefox.ai's observability platform addresses the deeply felt need of retail heads and CXOs to have better visibility and control over their retail footprint. By solving an underserved problem, Storefox.ai has the opportunity to transform in-store retail sales with a vertical SaaS solution, becoming the industry standard and driving exponential growth through enterprise accounts.
Expanding on the investment Rajiv, Partner at Antler India, states, "Jivitesh and Nithin have a unique blend of retail experience, technical prowess, and an unwavering drive to solve a critical challenge. The ability to capture in-store conversations and translate them into actionable insights that directly impacts bottom-line revenue, positions Storefox.ai as a game-changer in the retail analytics space. We're excited to support their journey in changing how retail brands engage with customers and optimize operations."
Transforming Retail Intelligence, One Conversation at a Time
In the near term, the Storefox.ai team is focused on expanding their pilot programs across high-ticket retail brands where selling is consultative, such as apparel, fashion, and jewellery. Their custom agents are also built keeping different categories and retail contexts in mind, with feedback loops from the brand making the platform more performant with data and use. Based on customer feedback and data insights, they aim to refine their platform continuously, ensuring it delivers tangible value to their clients.
However, the true potential of Storefox.ai lies in its long-term potential to become a robust operating system for retail operations, offering multiple solutions beyond conversation analytics. By capturing real-time conversations as the base layer for all retail analytics, they aim to drive actionable insights and enable data-driven decision-making across various aspects of retail operations, including merchandising, demand forecasting, and customer experience optimization.
Additionally, the founders have ambitions of expanding their footprint to the Western market within the next 18-24 months, leveraging their scalable technology platform and the global demand for sophisticated retail analytics solutions.
As the world grapples with a retail apocalypse there is an urgent need for data-driven retail operations and personalized customer experiences, Storefox.ai stands at the forefront of innovation poised to make a lasting impact on the way retail brands engage with customers, optimize operations, and drive sustainable growth.
Note from the founders: "With Antler's backing, we are now poised to launch Storefox.ai into a new era of retail intelligence. This is more than just a startup; it's a revolution in how retail brands engage with customers and optimize operations. The support from Antler has given us the resources and confidence to scale rapidly and make a significant impact in the retail sector. Our vision is grand, and our ambition knows no bounds. We're on the hunt for top engineering talent to join us on this exhilarating journey. If you're passionate about cutting-edge AI and transforming the retail experience, we want to hear from you. Reach out to us at hr@storefox.ai and be a part of something truly groundbreaking!
If you are a Retail CXO keen on exploring the power of the Storefox.ai platform, you can reach out to us at jivi@storefox.ai for a demo."
Globally, over 8,000 founders believe the Residency to be the best platform to launch a startup, whether it be stress-testing venture scalability, validating an idea faster, or completing the founding team. We are looking for solo founders and early teams committed to building game-changing venture scalable startups.
Join Antler to validate your idea, build your team, and access capital to launch and scale your company. Applications are open for early teams throughout the year for rolling intake and for the cohort starting February 2025 for individuals.
