🛍️🤖AI in Retail: Bridging Applications & Infra

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the retail landscape at an unprecedented pace, creating a dynamic ecosystem where applied AI solutions and infrastructure must evolve in tandem. As our recent CxO event in Los Angeles demonstrated, retailers don't need to wait for future innovations—numerous AI applications are ready for implementation today. But maybe retail isn’t ready?

Retail's AI Revolution

The retail sector stands at the forefront of practical AI adoption. Customer experiences are being transformed through AI-driven personalized recommendations and virtual shopping assistants that guide purchasing decisions. Marketing teams are leveraging AI to generate tailored content and dynamic ad creatives that respond intelligently to customer sentiment and preferences.

In physical stores, the future is already arriving with smart mirrors offering AR-powered virtual try-ons and advanced checkout systems like Amazon's Just Walk Out technology eliminating friction from the purchase process. AI-enabled shelf monitoring ensures products remain available when customers want them.

Business operations have similarly evolved through AI integration. Automated content generation systems produce product descriptions and marketing materials at scale. Demand forecasting powered by AI optimizes supply chains by predicting consumer behavior patterns. Inventory robots, AI-driven workforce scheduling, and energy optimization systems are delivering measurable operational efficiencies today.

The Critical Conversation Between Applications and Infrastructure

What's becoming increasingly clear is the necessity for collaboration between the applied AI layer (retail applications) and the infrastructure layer. As retailers implement more sophisticated AI solutions, their infrastructure requirements grow exponentially. This symbiotic relationship demands ongoing dialogue to ensure that infrastructure development keeps pace with application innovation.

The infrastructure challenges are substantial: computational acceleration demands continue to grow, data storage and management needs are expanding exponentially, and networking capabilities must evolve to support AI workloads. Perhaps most critically, the industry must address the substantial energy requirements of AI systems through sustainable approaches.

Foundational Models: The Innovation Race

Between applications and infrastructure sits the foundational model layer, which is currently attracting the lion's share of investment. Major players like OpenAI, Meta (Llama), and DeepSeek are engaged in fierce competition for market dominance, driving rapid innovation cycles that benefit the entire ecosystem.

This competitive landscape is accelerating advancements in model capabilities while simultaneously reducing costs—a perfect environment for Jevons Paradox to take effect. As models become more efficient and affordable, adoption increases, which in turn drives demand for even more capable systems in a self-reinforcing cycle of innovation.

The market is witnessing increased specialization, with industry-specific models designed for retail applications. Improved tooling and ecosystem development are simplifying implementation, while agentic AI systems that operate with greater autonomy are beginning to emerge.

The Path Forward

For retailers & other verticals to maximize AI's potential, they must recognize the interconnected nature of these three layers. Applied AI solutions provide immediate business value, but their continued evolution depends on advances in foundational models, which in turn require robust infrastructure.

As AI becomes more deeply integrated into retail's DNA, facilitating dialogue between application developers and infrastructure providers becomes essential. Meanwhile, the competitive dynamics in the foundational model space will continue to drive innovation that benefits the entire ecosystem, creating a virtuous cycle of advancement that promises to transform retail experiences and operations for years to come.

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💵Bay Area Startups Secured Over $6.6B

February ended with a total of $6.6B in fundings, almost $2B more than February last year. While AI companies received almost a third of the total, there was significant funding and megadeals in legal, security, biotech & medtech, infotech, healthcare and fintech. And on the first day of March, Anthropic announced their $3.5B funding at a $61.5B valuation, more than 3X up from a year ago.

On exits, IPOs: Although not an SV company – NY-based Coreweave - a high profile company in AI infrastructure - has filed for an IPO. This should be the first significant IPO of 2025. And San Francisco-based Discord is now considering an IPO, per the NY Times. It was last valued at $14.7B in 2021 in their $500M Series I, and they reportedly walked away from a $10B acquisition by Microsoft earlier that year.

On exits, M&A: On Wednesday, the first big acquisition of 2025, the $1.7B acquisition of Weights & Biases by Coreweave, was announced. But it's since been reported that this was an all-stock transaction and in that case, there's no money returning to investors, founders or LPs until after Coreweave IPO is completed. Weights & Biases raised $250M in total from investors including Bond, Coatue, Felicis and Trinity Ventures.

Follow us on LinkedIn to stay on top of what's happening in 2025 in startup fundings, M&A and IPOs, VC fundraising plus executive & investor activity.

Early Stage:

• Tandem PV closed a $50M Series A, developing state-of-the-art perovskite-based solar panels, which combine the durability and efficiency needed for broad scale deployment.

• LlamaIndex closed a $19M Series A, enables enterprises to build reliable, secure and scalable AI agents that can find information, synthesize insights, generate reports, and take actions over the most complex enterprise data.

• Decibel Bio closed a $12M Seed, bringing in-season epigenetic control to agriculture.

• Ember Software closed a $10M Seed, simplifies fire inspection workflows with customizable NFPA and state-specific compliant forms, centralized data management, one-click submissions to AHJs, and smart proposals.

• MaxIQ closed a $7.8M Seed, the first AI-powered Customer Journey Management platform, designed to unify sales, customer success, and revenue operations.

Growth Stage:

• Anthropic closed a $3.5B Series E, an AI safety and research company developing AI systems that are helpful, honest and harmless.

• Peregrine Technologies closed a $190M Series C, helps critical government and commercial institutions solve their most urgent problems by transforming how they interact with their data.

• Turing closed a $111M Series E, an AGI infrastructure company accelerating the advancement and deployment of powerful AI systems.

• Coalition closed a $30M Series F, the world's first Active Insurance provider designed to help prevent digital risk before it strikes.

• Atmosic Technologies closed a $40M Series D, an innovative technology company designing ultra-low power wireless connectivity solutions.

3GC | The Next Evolution of IT-MSP

Transforming IT-MSP by Integrating Data Operations

Traditional IT Managed Service Providers (IT-MSPs) focus on break-fix support and helpdesk services, ensuring systems remain operational but lacking the data operations support businesses need to drive real outcomes.

3GC has redefined the IT-MSP model by seamlessly integrating data operations into IT environments. Through Themis and the 3GC Data Service Desk, businesses gain structured, AI-enabled data management, cleansing, and integration—bridging the gap between IT infrastructure and business intelligence.

The 3GC Data Service Desk: Bridging IT and Data Operations

Most IT-MSPs do not provide data operations support, leaving businesses struggling with fragmented data, poor data hygiene, and delays in decision-making.

The 3GC Data Service Desk solves this by offering a single point of contact for both IT and data-related needs, ensuring streamlined data integration, cleansing, and reporting.

Themis: AI-Enabled Data Operations Inside IT-MSP

Unlike traditional data warehouses, Themis is built for IT environments—providing seamless, structured, and scalable data management.

• Turn Months into Weeks – Speeds up data warehouse setup, integration, and reporting, reducing BI project complexity.

• Embedded Into IT Workflows – Integrates directly into IT operations, making BI and reporting more effective without additional overhead.

• AI-Powered Automation – Prebuilt templates and AI-enhanced workflows optimize data ingestion, cleansing, and transformation, cutting costs and improving efficiency.

The 3GC IT-MSP Model: More Than Just IT Support

The 3GC model is a fully integrated IT and data operations platform, combining infrastructure, enterprise applications, and data intelligence into a single service.

• Data & IT Combined – A unified service desk that supports both IT issues and data-driven business intelligence needs.

• Fractional Expertise, Full Support – Access on-demand specialists, including data analysts, solutions architects, and IT experts.

• AI-Driven Efficiency – Traditionally expensive and complex, data operations are now cost-effective and scalable through AI-powered automation.

Unlock the Full Potential of Your Data

📅 Schedule a Consultation: Meet with 3GC Group

Around The Valley

WE ARE SILICON VALLEY // MAR7

Days like these remind us why we’re proud to call Silicon Valley home. Blessed with perfect weather, Commander James Gee and the Startup Grind team orchestrated an incredible Spring Soirée—a seamless blend of innovation, networking, and inspiring conversations.

Startups, investors, and the community’s ‘Avengers’ of ecosystem builders came together for an outstanding lineup of fireside chats and panels, offering a dynamic snapshot of today’s most pressing tech discussions.

The stunning venue and amazing food set the stage for meaningful connections, with warm introductions sparking fresh opportunities. We had an absolute blast and are thrilled to be a Startup Grind partner. (We even moved our own event for them—totally worth it! 😆)

What’s Next / 🛠️INFRA SEASON BEGINS🛠️

What We’re Listening To:

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Our mission is to provide an insider's view of Silicon Valley's undercurrents – insights often overlooked by mainstream sources. While many newsletters offer broad market overviews, we focus on delivering a unique, in-depth understanding of the local ecosystem. We share behind-the-scenes conversations, introduce key players we meet at events, and offer exclusive insights.

Your feedback is crucial in helping us refine our content and maintain the newsletter's value for you and your fellow readers. We welcome your suggestions on how we can improve our offering. [email protected] 

Logan Lemery
Head of Content // Team Ignite

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