Radar Hits $1B Unicorn Status | Fast Five Shorts

Radar, a retail inventory intelligence startup backed by American Eagle CEO Jay Schottenstein, has reached unicorn status after raising $170 million in a series B funding round at a valuation of over $1 billion, according to CNBC.

Radar was founded in 2013 by Spencer Hewitt, a former Peter Thiel Fellowship recipient who originally set out to build a better instant checkout solution before pivoting to inventory management.

Radar's platform uses ceiling mounted hardware to read RFID tags across store interiors, achieving what the company claims is a 99% item level accuracy rate.

The data flows into a software layer that converts real time location signals into operational actions.

Think automated replenishment alerts, omnichannel fulfillment routing, loss prevention triggers, and merchandising intelligence.

American Eagle was the first retailer to deploy the technology fleet wide, and Radar is now deployed across more than 1,400 stores, including old Navy locations.

Chris, Starbucks just killed an AI inventory tool that didn't work.

But Radar has just hit a one billion dollar valuation on the promise of doing inventory right.

What does this company getting to unicorn status tell you about where the smart money thinks the real opportunity in physical retail AI actually is?

Wow, that, that, that's a great question.

And you know, I got first, I gotta give major kudos to Radar for this announcement and I am eating some serious crow on this announcement.

I have followed, I followed RFID technology, particularly in apparel, since my store of the future days.

And I said on this podcast, when they made the Old Navy announcement, I said I was highly skeptical.

We had Spencer Hewitt, the CEO, on and we basically made a bet.

I was like, I told him to his face, I don't think we'll ever see you roll out to all Old Navy stores.

And he's like, I'll bet you a beer.

And to that point, I'm eating some serious crow.

And for all you listeners, because of that, I've invited Spencer to join us next week for five insightful minutes and he's going to appropriately put me in my place.

And I think it's very well deserved.

So kudos to him.

But I think what we're getting at here, Laura, is what I alluded to in the first headline, Retailers demand accuracy.

And in the apparel setting, RFID we know can work.

It can work.

But it is about finding the right system for your operation that delivers on two things, consistent accuracy and also informative actions to take off of the data, which it sounds like Radar is moving in that direction.

So to me, the key point here is the money flow.

The money flow, the size of the investment is validation that RFID has finally, finally crossed the chasm of acceptance for the retailers that understand where the future is headed.

But what do you think?

Yeah, I mean, this is kind of the.

I agree with you.

This is the other side of the coin from the Starbucks example where it shows how important categories and the match of a category and a solution is to it actually working.

You know, from my discussions with people in this space, even health and beauty is tough because you'd think it's square.

You know, they're often boxes.

But RFID needs to be attached further back in the manufacturing process and that doesn't happen in health and beauty.

And so there's a lot of complexity that that is sounds.

Makes it a lot more interesting than you would think.

Just, you know, sort of slapping a tag on something.

You know, obviously the vertical nature of these particular retailers also matters a lot.

You know, know, it's still fairly remarkable given the number of SKUs that go through an Old Navy store.

American Eagle too, but Old Navy especially.

But you know, I think like you said, it always just raises to me, so where is this going next?

You know, so we've crossed the chasm.

Clearly the cost has come down.

We're getting better at manufacturing products and putting chips in them, you know, where they can go and tags.

But it's still a very complex ecosystem of, of parts and technology.

You know, you have old guard like Avery Dennison making rfid.

You have like zebra that makes the tech to read them.

You have companies like Radar that are trying to do all the parts of it.

And so, you know, as a retailer or brand, you how do you know who you know that who you align with or who you connect with will actually be able to change as the technology evolves?

And I think that's the big question if you're looking at it from that side.

But you know, having having Old Navy and American Eagle under their belt I think is a really good sign for their solution.

And you know, it's going to get way more complex.

You know, Walmart's still working on it with Avery and Fresh.

We're trying to get into more categories.

I think there's still some FDA requirements around it coming up in a few years, so it's definitely going to be a space to keep an eye on.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, you bring up a lot of great points.

Like that's your, your point about what's the vertical and what's the right solution is really key.

Like we just talked about with Starbucks, you're alluding to it with grocery.

That's why I like robotics in grocery, because it's a different.

It's a different element to how that that store assortment works.

Whereas robotics in an apparel store is tougher because, like, how does the robot tell between, you know, a medium and a small?

It's really tough.

Right.

But RFID enables that.

Whereas you have the hangups with RFID, like liquids, metals, all those things, which they're solved for day and day.

If I talk to the RF ID folks, they always.

They always correct me on that whenever I say that.

And I'm like, yeah, it's getting better, but it's still not potentially where it needs to be from a mass rollout standpoint.

So the other point I make, just as closing, because I want to give Spencer his props, dude's been at this for like 10 years.

And he started out.

He started out as like computer vision checkout free.

That's how he was going to do this for the apparel space.

And he smartly has pivoted because he's like, you know what?

My technology is still great for providing the use case that retailers need, which is again, accuracy and insights off the data.

And so that's what's really fascinating.

And the last question I'm going to ask him, so he needs to get ready for it, if he's listening, is where's he.

Where are you going next?

Like, what are you doing with that money?

How are you scaling what's over the hill for you?

So I can't wait to talk to him about it.

Yeah, that's great.

That's a very timely, timely get.

I'm glad he's coming back.

And hopefully you'll.

You'll get him that beer virtually or.

Yeah, yeah, no, yeah.

Next time we're in real life together, I'm definitely getting that beer.

And not surprising, I heard from them as soon as that announcement broke too, which was great.