ReFiBuy, a Raleigh-based commerce intelligence platform, has raised $13.6M in an oversubscribed Seed round led by NewRoad Capital Partners. The Commerce Intelligence Engine ingests, evaluates, enriches, generates, syncs, distributes, and monitors product catalogs at the SKU level for AI shopping engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. The capital will scale the platform and go-to-market efforts.
AI Agents Reshape Product Discovery
The round arrives as AI shopping agents proliferate, with Amazon's Rufus usage up 115% and Anthropic's Claude integrating with Instacart for grocery carts per recent big tech earnings. NewRoad Capital Partners recently led Spangle AI's $15M Series A, a direct analog in AI agentic commerce. ReFiBuy's closed-loop Agentic Commerce Optimization (ACO) addresses the gap in SKU-level readiness for these agents, beyond traditional PIM tools.
Legacy Catalogs Miss AI Traffic
Legacy product catalogs fail to make brands eligible for AI-driven discovery, where 30-45% of US consumers already use generative AI for purchase research according to Bain via Axios Raleigh. Agentic commerce could add $190-385B to US e-commerce by 2030 as agents handle full shopping journeys per Morgan Stanley. Current solutions like PIMs from Salsify and Syndigo optimize for channels but lack real-time evaluation for AI interpretability.
Closed-Loop Engine Ensures Eligibility
ReFiBuy's platform evaluates SKU eligibility, enriches data with LLM-optimized content, and monitors performance with human-in-the-loop controls. It integrates with PIMs like Salsify, Akeneo, Shopify, and Salesforce for seamless workflows. Unlike broader analytics tools, it focuses on distribution to AI engines and continuous optimization.
Human Oversight Maintains Brand Control
The system generates product cards for agents while allowing brands to oversee outputs, turning product data into AI-readable infrastructure.
As Scot Wingo, CEO and co-founder, noted:
"We want to make sure every fact about your product is known by these [large language models], so that they can almost be an outsourced sales representative for you."
This positions ACO as a new layer atop existing commerce stacks.
Retail Tech VCs Validate ACO Thesis
NewRoad led the oversubscribed round, joined by Ridge Ventures, Silicon Road Ventures, Incubate Fund, VELA Partners, G20 Ventures, Commerce Ventures, and Knoll Ventures per official announcement. Their portfolios emphasize commerce tech, with NewRoad backing product data plays like Insite AI and Harmonya. Continued support from G20 and Commerce Ventures signals repeat conviction in ReFiBuy's direction.
Agentic Market Explodes at 40% CAGR
The agentic commerce market stands at $1.90B in 2025, projected to reach $54.22B by 2035 at 39.81% CAGR per NextMSC. Juniper forecasts $1.5T globally by 2030 via press release. Incumbents like Triple Whale ($52.7M raised) focus on e-commerce analytics, while Peak ($209M) targets retail decisions, leaving room for ReFiBuy's AI-agent specificity.
ChannelAdvisor Founder Targets AI Shift
Scot Wingo, co-founder and CEO, previously founded ChannelAdvisor, which went public in 2013. COO Derek Conlin and the team bring e-commerce veteran expertise. Featured in NRF Innovators 2026, they operate from downtown Raleigh with 20 employees.
Hiring and Developer Platform Expansion
ReFiBuy plans to hire 10 more staff amid scaling the Commerce Intelligence Engine. Early access to 'Build with ReFiBuy' developer platform launches Q3 2026, with design partners including Akeneo and Salsify. In production with beauty and fashion brands, funding accelerates GTM and integrations.