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fall: Mixed reality deep dive, Cargo $22m Series A, For Days new store in Soho, Skip 3000 stores, etc 
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Friends,

Yes. We are already here. The Holiday season is around the corner.
Will Alibaba crush double 11 figures again?
What will be Amazon's market share on black Friday?

Before entering the period’s extravaganza, in our future of commerce section, we wanted to share some learnings from a breakfast we organized in San Francisco about...(drumm roll)... mixed reality (XR) for commerce. Top VCs, Retailers and Brands were present to share their thoughts - let us know if you wish to be part of the next one.

In portfolio highlights, you will read among others that For Days just launched their second pop-up @ UpTon in Soho (224 Mulberry St New York), Cargo is reaching cruise speed with a $22m Series A raise with Founders Fund, and Presence AI recently graduated from the Amazon Alexa accelerator.

Enjoy reading/watching and please share your comments.

And happy holiday shopping !

Team Bleu

FUTURE OF COMMERCE

During Shoptalk in March this year, we felt the hype for mixed reality in commerce was fading. Are AR commerce use cases too limited? Do we miss the suitable hardware for such an experience? Are VR headset too expensive? Following a breakfast around XR in commerce we organized in San Francsico, we'd like to share some key takeaways (Spoiler alert: we did not find the RPO X1 haptic suit of Parzival).

1. AUGMENTED REALITY:
AR is now obvious for home decoration, beauty and fashion discovery. It remains highly differentiated promising a potential 3x+ in engagement and conversion on those categories. With Pokemon-go like, treasure-hunt-style marketing campaigns in shopping malls, an AR experience in retail can generate a powerful wow effect with both entertaining and informative experiences.

Here are a few cool videos we gathered:

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AR shopping with Obsess fashion show (Nov 2017 – Omin38)

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Alibaba Starbucks the Shanghai roastery (Dec 2017 – 3min59 go to 1min58)
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Personalised navigation in store with Hansel (Sept 2018 – 1min24)

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Nicely put by Bodly XR, an AR shopping experience (June 2018 – 0min38).


2. VIRTUAL REALITY:
If the movie is right, we still have to wait for 7 years before the Oasis opens. We haven’t found (yet) any virtual store that was truly enjoyable.

For the time being, we have to confess that VR has been well leveraged in physical store experience. Good examples are Lowe’s Holloroom and Zerolight car sales experience.

Macy's recent decision to roll out for 70 stores their VR program for furniture shopping is a good indicator of its performance both in traffic and conversion.

Beyond the store experience, we cannot forget Walmart's program to roll out 17,000 Oculus to train sales associates.

Palmer Luckey (co-founder of Oculus) recently came with a blog post stating that VR massive adoption is not a just question of hardware price: quality of the experience and diversity of content are still lacking to foster real audience engagement.

Conclusion: Beyond the obvious and the market tests, as far as Mixed reality is concerned, brands and retailers can focus first on building high quality 3D assets. Have a look at, Visby.io, developing light field technology for 3D asset creation, fascinating...).

SOME PORTFOLIO NEWS

For DaysFor Days
  • For Days opens a new store 224 Mulburry Street in New York - @ ForDays 
  • "My favorite is the white tee, or any tee, really, from For Days" - @ New York Magazine 
  • How Young People Are Changing the Fashion Industry - @ Sustainable Brands
Cargo Cargo
  • In-car commerce startup Cargo raises $22 million led by Founders Fund - @ Techcrunch
  • Cargo Wins $22M Financing To Support Rideshare Commerce Growth - @ Vending Times
  • Uber equips drivers with Cargo snack boxes - @ Forbes 
  • Cargo makes is to the Simpsons show - @ The Simpsons - Fox
 
Presence AIPresence AI
  • Presence graduated from Amazon Alexa Accelerator  - @ Techstars
 
Oto.aiSkip
  • Skip Adds New Retailers, Commits to Being in 3,000 Stores in 2019… Ahead of Amazon  - @ PRWire
 
Oto.aiOto.ai
  • Ushering in the era of speech-to-meaning - @ Medium
 

7fa640a0-f2d7-4730-abc6-53c103142edc.png ON OUR PLAYLIST

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Articles we loved:
Going back to the roots of VC
"Highly marked up valuations, which should be a cost for VCs, have in fact become their key revenue driver."

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Podcasts we turned on:
Retail is getting real, from our friends are NRF." 
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Blogs we are following:
Fashion Edge
All about fashion trends.



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How we jam:
A brass band booster for ya weekend - One Hunit.
Until next time, check us out online

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Bleu Capital is an equal opportunity investor. We celebrate diversity and do not discriminate against age, gender, religion, number of Twitter followers, or French-ness.
Questions or feedback?
Drop us a line at hello@bleucap.com