Meet our AND Startup Accelerator companies!

We’re proud to kick-off our 6-week Startup Accelerator in partnership with Google Cloud, a platform designed to help leading startups grow and scale by harnessing AI technologies. Participants will receive hands-on training and coaching to advance their AI, data and cloud skills, led by Google Cloud specialists and our digital upskilling experts at AND Digital.

By the end of the programme, our startups will have fully embedded Google’s transformative Gen AI-powered contact centre technology (CCAI), a key enabler for e-commerce growth and scalability.

At our recent launch event, we had the opportunity to catch up with our retail startups to learn more about their motivations for joining the programme, and what they hope to achieve over the next 6 weeks.

Circle of Style

Circle of Style matches people with products, using first-party data and AI. Curated to your size, style and budget through a quiz that combines psychology and style expertise to handpick items, you’ll receive personalised, pre-loved pieces, along with weekly recommendations and styling notes that are tailored to your style profile.

Muna Nageh, Co-Founder & CEO, had this to say about the accelerator:

“We had a specific proof of concept (PoC) that we wanted to develop with AND, that is a smarter search and data capture experience that will transform shopping and personalisation. Having met the team at AND, we could tell straight away they had a similar approach to us. Working with a small cohort, it's a personalised way of working that's genuinely passionate for our business and what we're trying to achieve, with a rounded and comprehensive set of experts. 

The PoC we're co-creating with AND will change the shopping experience for our customers, making it frictionless and hyper-personalised. Being able to find the perfect pre-loved piece for you will overcome the problem of shopping secondhand, and has the potential to supercharge a category that's already growing fast. This PoC is fundamental to that; we expect our conversion to purchase to improve substantially, and our data capture capabilities to remain strong.”

MONPURE

MONPURE, Founded by Nate Bigger, is best-known for pioneering the focus on scalp health as the foundation for haircare. MONPURE’s scientifically-proven, cruelty-free products not only enhance hair beauty, but also address scalp health comprehensively, preventing hair loss and improving hair quality.

Nate’s decision to join the accelerator stemmed from:

“The evolving landscape of AI and big data in business presents monumental opportunities for growth and innovation, particularly in consumer-centric industries. Joining the AND Startup Accelerator aligns with our mission to remain at the forefront of the hair and scalp health industry, by leveraging cutting-edge technologies and learning from some of the best in the business.

The mentorship and resources available through the accelerator are crucial for us. They will enable us to refine our data analytics and enhance our customer engagement strategies, ensuring we can provide more personalised and effective solutions to our users.”

Peachies

Peachies is the premium nappy brand for contemporary parenting, that focuses on providing babies with nappies that not only offer exceptional softness, but are also engineered to absorb 3x faster than the big brands, and keep the mess locked in, without fragrances, dyes or harmful chemicals. Peachies also offers a subscription service, which ensures families eliminate those all-too-frequent, panic-induced runs to the shop for nappies.

Morgan Mixon and Rima Suppan are Co-Founders of Peachies, and had this to say about their motivations to join the AND Startup Accelerator, and the impact they hope to achieve:

“We were motivated by the clear objective of the accelerator, which is integrating generative AI into customer engagement. We also value that the programme is tailored for e-commerce and retail brands between Seed and Series A, and the partnership with Google Cloud. For the stage that our business is now, we need focused support that can move our strategic projects forward that have a direct impact on growth. We are also excited to be learning alongside and from MONPURE and Circle of Style. The cross pollination of insights and experiences is already proving valuable, and we look forward to what’s ahead for the remainder of the accelerator.

The timing of the accelerator could not be more perfect for Peachies. We have reached an inflection point whereby our business growth over the course of 2024 has quadrupled. We have unprecedented demand on our Nappy Concierge team, and because Peachies is laser focused on delivering a world-class customer experience, we need to invest in tech infrastructure to service our growing community base. We are utilising AND’s formidable team to guide the build-out of our next generation customer service platform from the ground up with Google Cloud tools. We will undoubtedly walk away from the accelerator in six weeks with new knowledge, new connections and new features for the Peachies customer ecosystem that will further set us apart from our competitors.”

Thank you to our startup founders for taking the time to share their insights with us! We’ll be releasing a series of ‘Startup Spotlights’ over the course of the next week, giving you an opportunity to find out more about Circle of Style, MONPURE and Peachies in detail, including what makes their product a game-changer, the obstacles they’ve overcome, and their ambitions for the future.

In the meantime, you can connect with our startups using the links below.

Circle of Style: https://circleofstyle.com/ 

MONPURE: www.monpure.com 

Peachies: https://wearepeachies.com/ 

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