While it may not compare to trying on your next potential fashion statement in a store’s fitting room, online shopping has become the way the majority of people fill their closets. Nowadays, when nearly everything is digital, it’s easier and faster to find exactly what you’re looking for online. Unfortunately, what arrives in the mail may often fall short of your expectations. The next course of action is sending the item back to the retailer for a refund, a costly incident for the store itself.
Retailers experience hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue loss each year due to returns and fraud. Atlanta-based IT services firm Lillii RNB is working to provide both online and in-store retailers with the solutions they need to optimize their returns processes and keep a close eye on fraud and loss within their data. With over 4,000 clients today, the company secured $3 million in seed funding to expand its solution to retailers across the globe.
“Closing our pre-seed round of funding in 2021 and now successfully closing our seed round in the first quarter of this year are huge testaments to the progress we’ve made and the momentum we’re building,” Barbara Jones-Brown, founder and CEO of Lillii RNB, said in a statement. “Retailers have long suffered at the hands of fraudsters [and] hackers, and have lacked effective tools to fight back. With this capital and the support of top-notch investors, Lillii RNB is one step closer to helping retailers and business owners turn the tables on bad actors and focus on growing their businesses.”
Serving companies across industries from clothing and groceries to sporting goods and electronics, the company offers its Freeing Returns solution. The platform uses machine learning and AI to pinpoint organized retail crime, and works to help loss prevention teams respond quickly when issues arise.
Its latest injection of funding was co-led by Serena Ventures, a VC firm founded by tennis star Serena Williams, alongside Aperture Venture Capital. Lillii RNB’s other investors include names like Bronze Valley and Pax Angels, as well as local angels such as Laron Walker. With this round, most of the company’s earliest backers manage Black-led funds, a fact Lillii RNB is proud of.
“I am happy to support and invest in women like Barbara and companies like Lillii RNB Inc., who are addressing a huge need for retail brands,” Williams, managing partner of Serena Ventures, said in a statement. “This investment is in line with our vision of a world where dreams are not stifled by a lack of access to resources.”
