walmart
(10)
Symbotic knows where the box goes.
The clever part of Symbotic’s warehouse robots is what happens after the warehouse. Every mixed pallet is a plan for the store at the other end.
Bossa Nova taught robots to read shelves. Walmart changed the assignment.
A shelf-scanning robot made the supermarket legible to software. Bossa Nova’s rise, Walmart reversal, and unusually candid afterlife reveal how quickly a customer can change the meaning of a good invention.
Walmart Data Ventures and the secret life of a shopping basket
Every receipt records a decision. Walmart Data Ventures sells suppliers a way to understand it - and, increasingly, a way to do something about it.
The $93 Billion Club That Wants the Checkout Line to Disappear
Sam Walton's bulk-buying experiment has become a $93 billion retail laboratory. Its sharpest idea is wonderfully mundane: give members their time back.
Walmart
Walmart is the world's largest retailer by revenue, operating a global network of supercenters, discount stores, neighborhood markets, Sam's Club warehouse clubs and a fast-growing e-commerce business. Founded in 1962 by Sam Walton in Rogers, Arkansas, the company built its scale on an 'everyday low prices' model powered by a highly efficient supply chain. Today it blends roughly 10,500 stores worldwide with digital commerce, retail advertising, a growing marketplace and AI-driven shopping tools, serving hundreds of millions of customers each week while employing about 2.1 million people.
eko
eko is a New York-based media-technology company that turns product footage and data into interactive, shoppable video experiences for online retail. Founded in 2010 as Interlude to pioneer 'choose-your-own-adventure' interactive entertainment, the company rebranded to eko in 2016 and later pivoted toward ecommerce, using AI-driven tools to build interactive product pages, 360-degree product views and verified product data that help brands and retailers - most notably its long-time partner Walmart - lift engagement and conversion.
MarketLeap
MarketLeap is an AI-driven ecommerce accelerator that helps consumer brands launch and scale on global marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, eBay, OTTO, BOL and TikTok Shop. Founded in 2022 by former Amazon and Jumia executives Mamoun Benkirane and Mekki Mouaddeb, the platform combines automation, analytics and hands-on operations - including listing optimization, dynamic pricing, marketing, inventory forecasting and VAT/tax compliance - under a 'skin in the game' model that absorbs marketing costs and runs on 30-day rolling contracts. The company raised an $8M Series A in February 2025, bringing total funding to about $10.7M.
Alquist 3D
Alquist 3D is a Greeley, Colorado-based construction technology company that uses robotic 3D concrete printing to build homes, commercial buildings, and infrastructure. Founded in 2020 by Zachary Mannheimer, the company completed one of the first 3D-printed Habitat for Humanity homes in the U.S. and printed an ~8,000-square-foot addition to a Walmart in Athens, Tennessee - billed as the largest 3D-printed commercial structure in the country. In late 2025 it announced a landmark deal to print more than a dozen Walmart and retail buildings, positioning itself to commercialize 3D concrete printing at national scale.
ProductWind
ProductWind is a Seattle-based retail influencer marketing platform that helps enterprise brands ramp new product launches in days instead of months. Founded in 2020 by former Amazon product lead Jason Kowalski and ex-Uber engineer Tom Hirschfeld, the company mobilizes thousands of retail-native creators to drive social content, reviews, SEO and sales velocity on marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart. Its core idea - 'marketing to the algorithm' - treats retailer AI systems as a second customer alongside human shoppers, coordinating waves of creator activity to push products from page five to page one.
CommerceIQ
CommerceIQ is a Mountain View-based AI platform that helps the world's largest consumer brands - Nestle, Colgate, Whirlpool, Kellogg's, Bayer - grow profitably on Amazon, Walmart, Target, Instacart and 450+ other retailers by automating retail media, digital shelf, supply chain and sales operations with AI agents.