Czech startup Yieldigo closes 2 million Euro investment with J&T Ventures, Alchemist Accelerator and PortfoLion
The American Alchemist Accelerator from Silicon Valley and the Hungarian VC fund PortfoLion, is investing 2 million Euros in Yieldigo alongside J&T Ventures. The fast-growing company founded by three Czech mathematicians helps international retail chains achieve better results with artificial intelligence-based pricing.
Beyond the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Yieldigo platform is in use by retail chains in Poland, Germany, the Ukraine and Russia. Powered by artificial intelligence, the platform allows online and offline retailers to easily set and manage prices for tens of thousands of products in hundreds of different stores based on accurate predictions.
By relying on internal data, competitive business intelligence, general market trends, and various other sources Yieldigo enables retailers to better achieve their goals. The platform supports them in increasing their market share, achieving better profitability or improving their planning accuracy. The company’s customers include a network of supermarkets, pharmacies, and drugstores, and it helps both brick-and-mortar stores and online shops.
“We will use this investment to accelerate and strengthen Yieldigo’s expansion in the European retail market and to finance further development and applied research. The funding will take us one step closer to our goal of becoming the world’s most sought-after next-generation tool for automated pricing,” highlighted Yieldigo co-founder, David Klečka. The mathematicians Radim Dudek, Jiří Psota and Klečka founded the company in 2016 mathematicians, leading it to profitability in only two years.
Yieldigo Co-Founders, Radim Dudek, David Klecka, and Jiri Psota
The three founders were initially involved in mathematical research in the field of ticket pricing and then decided to transfer their experience to the retail sector. Based on transactional and other data, their system can predict how a customer is likely to make decisions in different situations. Yieldigo recently received the prestigious Cool Vendor recommendation from Gartner. A feat few Czech companies have ever achieved. Their innovative technology also won Yieldigo the 2019 Microsoft Awards in the FMCG & e-Tail category. Yieldigo’s global partners include the Nielsen consulting company. The company currently has a team of about 35 people in Prague and is growing continuously.
“Technology driven retail sector is one of our core targeted investment segments at J&T Ventures. Yieldigo has a potential to become a global leader in AI retail pricing optimization, and ever since we’ve first met with the Yieldigo team, we uncovered a robust and scalable product, proven business model and traction, and smart, ambitious founders with an outstanding team. It is a great example of an innovative technology company that can grow, scale up and globally expand even during current economic and pandemic crisis, and turn it into an opportunity.” said Adam Kočík, Managing Director of J&T Ventures.
“We are looking for ambitious teams with deep domain expertise and global vision. In the Yieldigo team we found exceptional mathematicians who are ready to make an impact in retail. Being a member of the OTP Banking Group, Portfolion has a strong retail sales background in twelve countries, through which we hope to help accelerate Yieldigo‘s regional expansion. We are also excited to close our first investment with J&T Ventures, who have been working closely with David and the team ” – added Aurél Pásztor, Partner at Portfolion Ventures, describing the deal.
Yieldigo CEO, David Klecka
About the Alchemist Accelerator
The Alchemist Accelerator is a venture-backed initiative focused on accelerating the development of seed-stage ventures that monetize from enterprises (not consumers). The accelerator’s primary screening criteria is on teams, with primacy placed on having distinctive technical co-founders. The Alchemist Accelerator is a six-month program, accepting about 25 companies every four months. On average, the companies that are accepted receive $36,000 in seed funding. Alchemist structures the program around mentorship, sales, and fundraising to help early-stage companies raise their Seed or Series A round and get their first few customers. Over 40% close institutional rounds within 12 months of their Alchemist Demo Day.
PortfoLion Venture Capital
HU-1123 Budapest, Alkotás u. 53.
Portfolion is a Budapest-based, all-stage venture capital and private equity firm, member of the OTP Group, the largest banking group in the Central Eastern European Region. Portfolion has more than 15 years of experience in providing support for enterprises to fulfil their vision of growth. Currently, with a total of € 230 million in funds, the firm is looking for the next meaningful investment all over Europe.
Yieldigo, s.r.o.
Jungmannova 750/34, Nové Město, 110 00 Prague
Yieldigo is a Czech SaaS service, founded in 2016, which uses advanced mathematics and artificial intelligence to revolutionize daily and strategic decisions on pricing in a revolutionary way. This enables us to achieve the business goals of our clients’ companies, comprising a network of supermarkets, pharmacies and drugstores. Yieldigo enables pricing managers to continuously calculate the right everyday prices to meet their business objectives. Based on chain specific customer behavior captured from live transactional data and selected pricing strategy. Backed by unique Yieldigo future-proof AI technology supported by our human pricing experts.
Media Contact:
Jan Horák, jan.horak@3.73.97.55, 00420 733 169 623