$50M funding boost will help NY retail tech firm expand Northwest Arkansas operations

Crisp, a New York-based retail technology company, announced a $50 million funding round Thursday (Feb. 22) that will have ripple effects in Northwest Arkansas.

The new funding will support the company’s aggressive growth efforts — building on its recent acquisition of Atlas Technology Group in Rogers — product development, expansion into new markets and additional acquisitions.

“Our strong growth is a testament to the measurable and significant value Crisp provides. We solve real problems and help CPG brands strengthen sales, marketing and their relationships with retailers,” founder and CEO Are Traasdahl said. “Accessing all data within a single platform is empowering brands to implement a collaborative commerce approach, where advanced analysis is improving forecasting, pricing strategies, inventory management, and expansion plans.”

According to a news release, the new capital is through a $20 million Series B extension round and up to $30 million in debt financing. Existing investors Blue Cloud Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Spring Capital and 3L contributed to the equity round.

TriplePoint Capital LLC provided debt to refinance existing senior debt and fund operating activities and continued acquisitions.

Crisp previously raised $60 million in equity, bringing the total equity raised to $80 million.

In an interview with the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, Traasdahl said addressing food waste through technology inspired the Crisp business model. He started working on the idea in 2016, and the platform went live in January 2020.

Crisp leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to connect consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands and developers to real-time data from over 40 retailers and distributors. The result is better insights, demand forecasting and other information that can help those companies make informed decisions about their inventory.

Traasdahl said that more than 700 CPG brands use the Crisp platform to strengthen relationships with retail partners by supporting sales and inventory management across all channels.

“We work very closely with the Walmart supplier community [in Northwest Arkansas] and have most of them as our customers,” Traasdahl said.

Crisp acquired analytics provider Atlas Technology Group, a suite of business intelligence applications and services that assist CPG companies, from Advantage Solutions in late 2023 and has about 40 employees in Northwest Arkansas. Traasdahl has toured office spaces in the region over the past several weeks, looking for more room, and splits his time between New York and Northwest Arkansas. He plans for the Crisp workforce in the area to grow substantially in the next two years, with jobs across all departments including sales, customer support and engineering.

“We will probably at least double the number of NWA-based employees in the next couple of years,” he said.

Outside of Northwest Arkansas, Crisp has five offices and about 140 full-time workers. Traasdahl said the company’s largest workforce is in Northwest Arkansas.

NORWAY TO NYC TO NWA
Traasdahl, 51, was raised in a small village of fewer than 10,000 in Norway and immigrated to New York City in 2002. In an interview three years ago, he told a reporter the story of his journey.

“After finishing my studies, I moved to Oslo and began working for PA Consulting Group,” he recalled. “Telenor, one of the world’s largest mobile telecommunications companies, then approached me to work for them. At the time, Scandinavia was at the forefront of mobile technology, and they eventually sent me to the U.S. to start a new company on their behalf.”

Traasdahl parlayed that leap to the U.S. into two decades of successful experience in mobile and digital technology. Before working on Crisp, he was the founder and CEO of Tapad, a cross-device advertising and content delivery platform. In 2016, Telenor Group acquired Tapad for $360 million, making it one of the largest venture-backed M&A exits in New York since 2009.

Before Tapad, he founded Thumbplay, a mobile entertainment service that grew to more than $100 million in revenue in less than three years before he exited the company. The company, later acquired by Clear Channel, is now called iHeartRadio.

Traasdahl was named Global Startup Awards Founder of the Year in 2016 and EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2014. He also runs Spring Capital, investing in tech companies “preferably with a positive impact.”

He told the Business Journal that it shouldn’t be surprising that he is taking a keen interest in Northwest Arkansas as an essential part of Crisp’s growth strategy.

“Northwest Arkansas is the retail capital of the world — period,” he said. “We believe we can build the best technology by working with the most advanced customers, and the world’s retail and supply chain experts are based in Northwest Arkansas.”

Traasdahl also commented on Walmart’s requirement that all suppliers subscribe to its Luminate data service. For over three decades, Walmart used the Retail Link system to connect suppliers with sales data and analytical insights.

The transition to Luminate started this past October, and Retail Link will become obsolete on March 1. Traasdahl said Crisp is ready for the change.

“Luminate offers unprecedented visibility — and unprecedented volumes of data — to its suppliers,” Traasdahl said. “Crisp will help customers make this transition seamlessly while realizing the full value of the Luminate platform.”