Spangle, an AI e-commerce startup based by former Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla, has raised $15 million in a brand new funding spherical, valuing the corporate at $100 million after the funding.
Led by NewRoad Capital Companions, the all-equity Sequence A spherical comes over a yr after the Seattle-based startup raised a $6 million seed spherical at a $30 million pre-money valuation. Madrona, DNX Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, and strategic angel traders additionally participated, bringing complete funding to $21 million, in keeping with the startup.
Retailers are dealing with modifications in how shoppers uncover merchandise on-line, as AI instruments, social platforms, and advice engines more and more affect shopping for selections earlier than consumers attain a model’s web site. Kuruvilla (pictured above) goals to deal with this with Spangle — positioning it as software program that helps retailers personalize procuring experiences based mostly on that context as consumers transfer by their websites, utilizing real-time, AI-generated product suggestions and layouts.
Since rising from stealth in March of final yr, Spangle has signed 9 enterprise clients, together with style retailers Revolve, Alexander Wang, and Steve Madden, whose mixed on-line gross sales complete about $3.8 billion, Kuruvilla mentioned in an interview.
Site visitors flowing by Spangle’s platform has grown about 57% month-on-month, with all clients increasing their use of the software program, and the startup mentioned it quadrupled its annualized income within the fourth quarter, although it didn’t disclose income figures.
On the core of Spangle’s strategy is a straightforward concept: as an alternative of sending consumers to pre-built product or class pages, manufacturers route site visitors to what’s primarily a clean web page. Spangle’s AI fills that web page in actual time utilizing a proprietary mannequin referred to as ProductGPT, drawing on indicators reminiscent of the place the patron got here from, what they looked for or clicked on, and the way comparable guests have behaved, to floor merchandise, suggestions, and content material tailor-made to that second.
Kuruvilla informed TechCrunch that manufacturers utilizing Spangle are seeing near a 50% enhance in income per go to, a doubling of return on advert spend, and a 15% enhance in common order worth.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
“We’re future-proofing the model,” Kuruvilla mentioned, including that Spangle trains its AI mannequin on every retailer’s catalog and efficiency knowledge, permitting procuring experiences to adapt routinely.
Spangle’s software program has helped Revolve adapt procuring experiences in actual time, driving a few 60% enchancment in return on advert spend and a 50% enhance in income per go to, mentioned Ryan Pabelona, the retailer’s vice chairman of efficiency advertising and marketing.
Earlier than beginning Spangle in 2024, Kuruvilla served as CEO of the one-click checkout firm Bolt and earlier spent greater than a decade at Amazon, the place he labored on large-scale commerce and AI programs. He based the startup alongside CTO Fei Wang, a former Amazon principal engineer who labored on Alexa and customer support applied sciences and later served as CTO at Saks Off fifth.
Kuruvilla mentioned their expertise working commerce and funds platforms formed Spangle’s concentrate on constructing infrastructure reasonably than incremental fixes. Some, he added, view the startup as a sort of Shopify for AI-powered commerce.
Spangle’s strategy additionally aligns with a shift towards procuring mediated by AI instruments reminiscent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and a number of other browser-based brokers. As shoppers more and more depend on chatbots and automatic brokers to seek for and examine merchandise, Kuruvilla mentioned manufacturers will want software program that may reply dynamically to each human consumers and machines, reasonably than serving the identical static pages to each customer.
Kuruvilla informed TechCrunch that Spangle turned viable solely up to now two years as three main shifts converged: shoppers rising snug discovering merchandise by AI instruments, a speedy proliferation of discovery channels past Google and Meta, and advances in AI expertise which have sharply lowered the price and latency of producing real-time experiences. Collectively, he mentioned, these modifications made it potential to switch incremental fixes with an AI-native commerce system that may adapt immediately as procuring habits evolves.
At present, Spangle has six full-time staff, underscoring how AI instruments are permitting startups to scale enterprise software program with comparatively small groups.
With the recent funding, Kuruvilla mentioned Spangle plans to speculate additional in analysis and growth, broaden its engineering crew, and construct out its gross sales group.
