BENTONVILLE, Ark.— dunnhumby, the global leader in Customer Data Science, today announced the launch of dunnhumby Incubate, a new incubation program designed to discover and co-develop breakthrough technologies with visionary experts, entrepreneurs, and startup founders from the ground up.
Operated by dunnhumby ventures, the company’s open innovation and venture investing arm, dunnhumby Incubate offers a unique opportunity for early-stage companies working in data science, AI, retail tech, and customer experience to collaborate with dunnhumby’s industry-leading experts and global clients.
The Incubate program simultaneously launches two new channels for identifying co-innovation opportunities:
- Incubate Portal – An external submissions gateway for entrepreneurs to propose bold ideas for partnering and co-developing propositions with dunnhumby; and
- dh Incubate Competition – An internal innovation sourcing gateway that taps into dunnhumby’s own expert talent pool, surfacing and incubating best creative ideas from within.
“We’re looking for founders who are building the future of retail using AI, unique data assets, and emerging technologies.” said Leo Nagdas, Head of dunnhumby ventures. “If you’re an experienced entrepreneur with a great idea which you’d like to accelerate with dunnhumby’s unparalleled retail expertise, resourcing, and go-to-market support – you are the perfect candidate for the Incubate portal.”
While the Incubate portal will be continuously open to all innovators that have a proposition aligned to dunnhumby’s areas of expertise, dunnhumby is dedicating its first cohort of priority co-innovation partnerships to startups addressing increasingly critical needs of CPGs in total marketing mix optimization, AI-driven innovation concept development and testing, automated content creation, and consumer insights for more effective real-time customer segmentations. Additionally, dunnhumby recognizes the ever growing importance of sustainability and health & wellness to the consumer and the global retail supply chain, and welcomes data partners seeking to collaboratively transform our ecosystem in these areas.
Today’s news coincides with dunnhumby venture’s Retail Innovation Forum, a one-day event being held today during Bentonville’s first Retail Innovation Week. More than 250 selected retail and CPG technology leaders will be meeting in person during the event to build a joint vision for the future of retail by participating in innovation showcases, panel discussions, and curated networking sessions.
Applications for the Incubate portal are now open. To learn more or apply, visit https://www.dunnhumby.com/about-us/innovation/
