AI solutions startup secures R60m investment to help 'further revolutionise' the retail sector

AI solutions provider Spatialedge has announced a R60 million funding deal with the Hlayisani Growth Fund.

The Stellenbosch-based startup lists big names like PEP and Vodacom among its corporate clients.

Spatialedge combines human intuition with machine intelligence to deliver high value results and help businesses make better decisions.

The new funding will help it further revolutionise the retail sector, the company says in a statement.

"Since starting up in 2017, the company has experienced exponential growth, surpassing R300 million in revenue, and has established a proven track record of credibility with many of Africa’s largest multinational enterprises."

"We have worked directly with our customers for seven years, researching, developing and delivering cutting-edge, tailored solutions that solve real-world business problems."

Retief Gerber, CEO - Spatialedge

In conversation with Bruce Whitfield, CEO Retief Gerber says it's still 'early days' in this area of AI development, and human data scientists will be needed for some time to come.

"The big part that's probably going to be missing for a long time with figuring out the patterns, is figuring out where the patterns are going to be useful and how it'll impact and change a business."

Retief Gerber, CEO - Spatialedge

The people in the field who understand the nuance are still critical, Gerber says.

He also explains that the development of Spatialedge has been a collaborative effort with their clients.

"A lot of other providers come with a black box and the client doesn't really understand how the box works, and if you become reliant on this not knowing what's going on it's a big risk."

"We get feedback from our clients in terms of how valuable our work has been, and in the seven years we're sitting at about a R5 billion improvement that we've created for our customers in terms of their accounting."
Retief Gerber, CEO - Spatialedge