aifora in a €7 million deal backed by NewForge, Capnamic and NRW.Bank.

aifora, a Düsseldorf, Germany-based software developer for the retail industry, announced the completion of a €7 million ($8.5M) capital investment deal in series A round.

The money was raised from German investors, including NRW.Bank, NewForge and family offices from the retail sector whose name was not disclosed. Existing shareholders from Capnamic Ventures also contributed to the deal.

Proceeds will be used for the product development of the AI-based SaaS solutions and the planned internationalization.

As part of the Series A financing, the company established a new Advisory Board with the former Orsay and Betty Barclay CEO Matthias Klein, as chairman of the advisory board. In addition, the Advisory Board is supported by an extended industrial advisory board, including Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Maaß, Scientific Director of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.

aifora, founded in 2018 by David Krings and CEO Thomas Jesewski, developed a SAAS Retail Automation Platform that enables retailers to make the right pricing and inventory management.

The company says it wants to offer further functionalities around the AI-based demand forecast and the solutions based on it for price and inventory automation on its platform in order to offer customers further optimization options and even greater benefits.

The growth plan includes the expansion of the team in order to advance both the software products of the aifora platform and the company's sales channels for further internationalization. In addition to opening up new European markets, the current market position in the core DACH market is to be expanded: aifora would like to become a category leader in the region in the medium term.

aifora previously raised funding in 2020, when it added NRW.Bank in the captable, and was seeded by Capnamic in a €3 million deal closed in 2018.