# Hetal Retail

> Hetal Retail is a New York-based startup that helps consumer brands see what is actually happening on store shelves. A crowdsourced network of everyday shoppers - called Hetalites - films short videos of store aisles on a mobile app, and Hetal's computer vision and AI turn that footage into planogram-compliance diagnostics, prioritized issue lists with visual proof, and correlations between shelf execution and sales. The pitch: retail-level visibility for a fraction of the cost of traditional manual audits, and a system that helps coordinate the fix rather than just flagging the problem.

- **Founded:** 2023
- **Headquarters:** New York, NY, United States
- **Founders:** David Roger (Co-founder & CEO), Michael Rostowsky (Co-founder, Product & Finance), Bobby Shomrony (Co-founder, Operations), Mike Walters (Co-founder & CTO)
- **Team size:** Approximately 23 employees
- **Products:** Shelf Management Platform, Hetalites Network, Sales Correlation & Category Insights, Action Coordination
- **Notable:** Raised a $6.4M seed round in June 2025 from investors including Ludlow Ventures and GTM Fund, Grew to 100+ brand customers referenced publicly, Generated meaningful ARR while still in beta

## Products & services

- **Shelf Management Platform** — A SaaS platform that uses computer vision and generative AI to diagnose planogram compliance, detect missing products, pricing errors and misplaced displays, prioritize issues, and deliver visual proof brands can act on.
- **Hetalites Network** — A crowdsourced network of everyday shoppers who reserve store sessions and film 15-60 second videos of designated aisles on the Hetal mobile app, earning roughly $10+ per completed session (about $1/min).
- **Sales Correlation & Category Insights** — Analytics that correlate shelf execution with sales performance so brands can quantify the ROI of merchandising fixes and inform category management decisions.
- **Action Coordination** — Beyond flagging problems, the platform helps coordinate corrective action in-store, reflecting the founding belief that an issue list alone is not a solution.

## Achievements

- Raised a $6.4M seed round in June 2025 from investors including Ludlow Ventures and GTM Fund
- Grew to 100+ brand customers referenced publicly
- Generated meaningful ARR while still in beta
- Built a crowdsourced Hetalites network that collects shelf video at roughly a fifth of traditional audit cost
- Recognized as a Cornell (Big Red AI) affiliated startup

## Latest updates

- **2025-06** — Closed a ~$6.4M seed funding round led by a syndicate including Ludlow Ventures, GTM Fund and Nomad Ventures.
- **2025-10** — Announced public release of the store-level merchandising platform, publicized by team and investors on LinkedIn.

## Links

- Website: https://hetalretail.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/hetal-retail

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/hetal-retail
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-05