Norwegian AI start-up Jenz raises €540,000 in pre-seed funding
Antler and Ada Ventures backed the retail software developer, which also received a NOK 1 million grant from Innovation Norway.
Jenz, a Norwegian start-up developing artificial intelligence software for retailers, has secured €540,000 from investors Antler and Ada Ventures in a pre-seed round. Separately, Innovation Norway awarded the business a start-up grant of NOK 1 million.
The company is building a platform that brings together information held in retailers’ e-commerce, point-of-sale, stock, accounting and marketing systems. Its AI agent is designed to use that data to support demand forecasting, assess pricing and marketing approaches, and carry out routine administrative work.
Pilot onboarding started in late August, involving online retailers as well as operators of multiple physical shops. Customers have given the platform more than 3,000 tasks spanning over 20 back-office systems during the trials. Jenz said some participants reported saving as much as 100 hours during their first month; one retailer reported team capacity rising by 31 per cent.
The founders are CEO Remi Bjørnestad, CTO Jo Schou Sandåker and CCO Natnael Belete Seifo. Their team won June’s Norway AI Hackathon in Mandal, organised by Ada Ventures and Startuplab. Ada Ventures then became the company’s first investor, before the team moved from Kristiansand to Oslo and entered Antler’s residency programme.
Jenz plans to move beyond the Nordic region and expects to launch in the UK within nine months.
