Seed Funds for Competitor Tracking Firm Netail

US-based Netail, which helps retailers identify and track competitors online, has raised $5m in a seed round. The funds will be used to expand into new markets, enhance its product offerings, and open an office in Hong Kong.

Netail scans the web and auto-identifies competitive products, providing real-time competitive intelligence for pricing and assortment decisions. The firm's proprietary combination of image and language models can identify competing products anywhere they are being sold, and its optimization engine keeps clients up to date regarding assortments, product availability and pricing.

New funding was co-led by Magarac Venture Partners (MVP) and Andrew Ng's AI Fund, with participation from HKSTP Ventures. With the investment, Netail will develop its AI tech in Pittsburgh, while retaining a presence in Palo Alto. It will also expand its team of retail, AI and software engineers, and expand to the APAC region with the opening of an office in the Hong Kong Science & Technology Park.

CEO Mark Chrystal (pictured) comments: 'As shopping has been transformed, retailers need to recognize that their competitive universe has expanded a thousand-fold and as a result, competitive pricing, features, availability and convenience are central to a daily battle to win each and every customer. That's what Netail focuses on, helping retailers around the world stand out digitally against the competition'.

Web site: www.netail.ai .