Bandit ML aims to optimize and automate the process of presenting the right offer to the right customer.
The startup was part of the 2020 summer class at the Y Combinator accelerator . He also raised a $ 1.32 million seed round in September from YC, Haystack Fund, Webb Investment Network, Liquid 2 Ventures, Jigsaw Ventures, Basecamp Fund, Pathbreaker Ventures and various angels, including the one that CEO Edoardo Conti he said are 10 current and former Uber employees.
Conti (who founded the company with Lionel Vital and Joseph Gilley) is himself a former Uber software engineer and researcher.
The idea, as he explained via email, is that one customer might be more thrilled with a $ 5 discount, while another might be more effectively enticed by free shipping, and a third party might be completely disinterested because they just made a big purchase. Using a merchant's order history and website activity data, Bandit ML it should help them determine which offer will be most effective with which buyer.
Conti acknowledged that there are other discount optimization software out there, but suggested that none of them offer what Bandit ML does: "ready-to-use tools that use machine learning like giants like Uber, Amazon do. and Walmart ".
He added that Bandit ML's technology is unique in its support for full automation ("some stores sent out their first batch of offers within 10 minutes of signing up") and in its ability to optimize for long-term metrics, such as purchases over a 120-day period rather than focusing on one-time refunds. In fact, Conti said the technology used by the startup to make these decisions is similar to the ReAgent project he worked on on Facebook.
Bandit ML is currently focused on merchants with Shopify stores, although it also supports other non-Shopify stores, such as Calii. Conti said the platform has been used to send promotions worth millions of dollars since July, with a clothing company reporting a 20% increase in net revenue.
"Starting with an always-on incentive engine for every online business, we aim to create ready-to-use machine learning tools that a small online business needs to compete with the Walmart and Amazons of the world," he said.