Retail Software Startup Handshake Raises $3.2 Million for AI Contract Platform
Handshake, a London-based retail technology company founded in 2024, has raised $3.2 million to build an AI-powered platform for managing commercial agreements between retailers and suppliers. Triple Point Ventures led the round, with backing from Future Back Ventures by Bain & Company, Octopus Ventures, and other retail investors.
The platform consolidates contract management, rebate tracking, activations, and joint business plans into a single system. Today, many retailers and suppliers still rely on spreadsheets, email chains, and disconnected workflows to handle these relationships.
The Problem Handshake Targets
Fewer than 50% of suppliers have written agreements with the retailers they serve, according to the company. Retail buying teams face pressure from margin compression, inflation, complex supplier networks, and compliance requirements-conditions that create demand for software solutions.
Gopuff, a customer managing hundreds of supplier relationships across multiple product categories, uses Handshake to give its merchandising teams better visibility into contracts and agreements.
What's Next
Handshake plans to use the capital to expand its engineering and customer success teams and deepen partnerships with major retailers and suppliers. The company was founded by Alex Lindsay and Peter Welch, combining retail operations expertise with enterprise software and AI development experience.
For product development professionals, this funding round signals growing investment in AI Agents & Automation solutions targeting operations-heavy industries. Handshake's approach-replacing manual, fragmented processes with AI-native systems-reflects a broader shift toward automating business workflows that have resisted digitization.
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