{"id":235933,"date":"2025-07-03T23:17:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T23:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235933\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T23:17:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T23:17:15","slug":"remark-raises-16m-to-build-out-human-powered-expert-models-for-e-commerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235933\/","title":{"rendered":"Remark raises $16M to build out human-powered expert models for e-commerce"},"content":{"rendered":"

Startups working on AI-powered e-commerce tools often rely on external data or user signals to build and improve their models. However, a company called Remark<\/a> is taking a different approach by letting thousands of human experts chat with users while they are purchasing items, and then using that knowledge to train models.<\/p>\n

Remark also makes those experts \u201cavailable\u201d all the time by having their AI-powered persona answer questions. Remark said that this resulted in a 10% net revenue gain for partners, which was a great sign for investors.<\/p>\n

The startup on Tuesday announced $16 million in Series A funding led by Inspired Capital with participation from Stripe, Neo, Spero Ventures, Shine Capital, and Visible Ventures. This brings the startup\u2019s total funding to date to $27 million. Remark plans to use the funds to grow its team of 25 people and spend on model training.<\/p>\n

Remark joins a number of startups that are plugging AI into various areas of e-commerce, such as search<\/a>, try-ons<\/a>, chatbots<\/a>, and dynamic page generation<\/a> that is suited for AI-powered experiences. While these companies operate in different areas, merchants can only spend so much to enhance their online experience. In this market, Remark could have challenges in scaling and competing with other e-commerce startups using AI.<\/p>\n

While Remark previously depended on a cut of the sale to generate revenue, the company has moved to a SaaS-based (software-as-a-service) model for better cash flow and now takes a fee based on site traffic.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits:<\/strong>Remark<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s CEO, Theo Satloff, said that physical stores tend to see high conversion rates of 30% to 35% compared to online stores that convert at roughly 1.5%. With Remark, the startup wanted to change that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason for low conversion rates on e-commerce sites is that people have a lot of questions when they shop. They have to go on Reddit or ask their friends to get advice about the purchase. In a store, a person with product knowledge helps them, so the conversion rate is high,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt Remark, we want to bring that kind of expertise to online shopping for our partners,\u201d Satloff said in a call with TechCrunch.<\/p>\n

When a user visits a site that uses Remark, the startup\u2019s tool generates a set of dynamic questions that can drive the user\u2019s purchasing decision. If a user is looking for pots and pans, the site could ask what kind of stovetop they have, or if they use diesel, induction, or gas. When the user clicks on one of these questions, a chat interface opens where they\u2019re matched with an expert who can offer advice about buying an item.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits:<\/strong>Remark<\/p>\n

Remark matches an expert with a user based on skill set and locale, it says. If an expert is not available, the user is matched with an AI bot based on those experts who can help them with their shopping. <\/p>\n

The company is slowly expanding its expert network. Satloff said Remark works with a variety of accreditation agencies to verify the expertise of the people who work with them. (This is akin to Airbnb adding various experience providers<\/a> for its platform.)<\/p>\n

Experts are paid for their time on the platform on a per-chat basis. They are also paid when their AI persona converts a sale. While the startup didn\u2019t provide an exact figure for the average earnings that an expert receives, it said its top 20% earn $60,000 to $70,000 per year by spending more than 15 to 20 hours a week offering advice.<\/p>\n

The catch is that the human expert needs to be alert to requests from users. When a user activates a chat, experts get a notification on their phone on Remark\u2019s app, and they have five to eight seconds to claim the chat and respond to the buyer.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits:<\/strong>Remark<\/p>\n

Remark also dynamically rewrites the content on the website based on the user\u2019s conversation with the expert and what they might be looking for. <\/p>\n

The company has been growing quickly. Following its $10 million fundraise in 2024,<\/a> Remark has seen 4x revenue growth. It also increased its network of experts from 50,000 to 60,000.<\/p>\n

Kamran Ali, a principal at Inspired Capital, said that Remark\u2019s utilization of human insights was an important factor in the VC firm investing in the startup.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs AI continues to take over the internet, we\u2019re going to continue to be inundated with just a ton of AI-generated content everywhere we go. The amount of AI-generated content we see today is dramatically more than a year ago, and there\u2019s no end in sight. So, having human insights and preferences will actually be at a premium, and that\u2019s what attracted us to invest in Remark,\u201d he told TechCrunch over a call.<\/p>\n

Remark is now working on the ability to generate blog posts that recommend products based on expert conversations. Later, it plans to send personalized follow-up emails to users about a conversation they had with an expert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Startups working on AI-powered e-commerce tools often rely on external data or user signals to build and improve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3094],"tags":[92191,51,3524,3134,92190,51593,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-235933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-ai-shopping","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ecommerce","11":"tag-entrepreneurship","12":"tag-inspired-capital","13":"tag-remark","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114791858176329992","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}