Companies spend millions of dollars to launch thousands of promotions per month, but they don’t always understand which ones worked better than others. And when the promotions are analyzed, it is discovered that the majority of them have not contributed to the company’s profit at all.
Enter Kuonaa Mexico-based SaaS company that uses machine learning to sift through all those promotions to show consumer packaging companies and retailers which ones are doing well and automatically optimize product prices and inventory in relation to the promotions.
Chema Sanroman and Agustín Magaña, who have backgrounds in data science, artificial intelligence, and CPG revenue and pricing, saw the challenges around pricing and promotions and started Kuona in 2017.
Here’s how it works: Kuona developed data-driven tools to predict demand and track customer behavior. The tools integrate with business data in real-time and leverage neural networks for simulations to increase promotion return on investment while maintaining or increasing sales.
“Our tool helps them understand what works and what doesn’t,” CEO Sanroman told australiabusinessblog.com. “It also gives them a view of what has worked in the past and present and then allows them to plan for the future.”
Currently, Kuona is active in the United States, Mexico, Peru and Ecuador and has just opened an office in Brazil. It offers two products, including the price and promotion optimization and Perfect Order, which help businesses reduce the number of returns and out-of-stock items per point of sale.
The company has doubled its turnover and customers in the past two years and is already profitable. It counts on its list of 15 to 20 customers from global entities such as Coca-Cola and OXXO convenience stores.
Today it announced $6 million seed funding in a round led by Cometa and including Seaya Cathay Latam and FEMSA Ventures. The new investment gives Kuona a total of approximately $7.2 million in funding.
Sanroman plans to use the new funding to further expand its team and geographic presence in Latin America and the United States, and to establish a team in Europe, where it already has some connections.
