Remark raises $16 million for AI-based online shopping assistant
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The round was led by Inspired Capital, with participation from Stripe, Neo, Spero Ventures, Shine Capital, and Visible Ventures, bringing the company's total funding to $27 million.
Despite trillions spent on e-commerce infrastructure, the single most effective driver of sales — the in-store expert — has never been replicated online. Shoppers crave personalized guidance, and when they receive it, they convert at staggering rates. Merchants that deliver tailored product advice see meaningfully higher conversion rates, larger order values, and reduced return rates. Remark brings this high-converting experience online, turning passive browsing into confident buying through AI personas trained by over 60,000 human product experts and counting.
Remark's language models are trained on the knowledge, tone, and preferences of Olympic athletes, stylists, estheticians, new parents, and more. These insights become always-on digital advisors embedded directly in brand storefronts. Unlike generic chatbots or large language models fine-tuned on public data, Remark's personas are trained on the anecdotes and personal knowledge of subject-matter experts. The result is warm, informed guidance that helps customers find the right products and delivers the kind of personalized, high-touch experience shoppers expect in store.
'We believe AI should elevate the human experience, not replace it,' said Theo Satloff, CEO and co-founder of Remark. 'By working with real product experts to train AI personas, we're creating guidance that's trusted, helpful, and deeply personal. Our goal is to make online shopping feel less like a transaction and more like being guided by someone who truly understands what you need.'
Since its funding last year, Remark has grown revenue 4x year-over-year, maintained 100% retention across more than 60 brand partners, and achieved nearly 130% net dollar retention. Remark has driven tens of millions in net new revenue for its customers, delivering an average lift of 10%, and has converted 28% of shoppers — far above the industry average of 1%. It has also helped brands save over $3.2 million in customer service costs by reducing support tickets and guiding shoppers to the right fit more efficiently.
'Remark is redefining how brands connect with customers,' said Kamran Ali, Principal at Inspired Capital. 'They've created an entirely new category of AI-native commerce, one that blends real human expertise with scalable technology. Remark is proving that this model not only improves the shopping experience, but also directly drives business results.'
As shoppers increasingly expect deeper guidance in categories like health, beauty, apparel, and outdoor gear, Remark gives merchants a competitive edge by combining the revenue driving power of human retail sales associates with the speed and scale of AI.
With this new funding, Remark will expand into new verticals, grow its expert network, and deepen its tooling for training, deployment, and analytics. The company is also building new systems to help brands launch AI personas faster, measure performance in real time, and adapt to shifting customer needs.
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