dunnhumby ventures invests in Azoma to accelerate agentic commerce optimization
dunnhumby ventures has invested in Azoma, the Agentic Commerce Optimization platform, and appointed its head Leo Nagdas as an advisor to Azoma’s board. The investment will let dunnhumby extend support for retailer clients’ chat agents and help brands improve discoverability in the emerging agentic commerce environment.
Azoma will use the funds to speed up its product roadmap for customers including L’Oréal, Unilever and Mars, focusing on linking AI visibility to recommended actions and measuring incremental revenue. The move builds on Azoma’s analysis of tens of millions of AI responses from the second quarter of 2026, which found that earned or social media drives 86.5% of Alexa for Shopping’s recommendations and 76% of Walmart Sparky’s. ChatGPT, by contrast, draws 37.1% of its citations from retailer sources, highlighting the gap Azoma aims to close for brands. Leo Nagdas also founded dunnhumby’s Retail Innovation Network, an open innovation programme for retail technology leaders.
“Agentic commerce is a $9 trillion opportunity, and this is how we will continue to define the category,” Max Sinclair, CEO and Co-Founder, Azoma said.
“AI shopping assistants are rewriting the path to purchase, and today retailers and CPGs have no reliable way to connect what an agent recommends to a sale,” Leo Nagdas, Head of dunnhumby ventures said.
dunnhumby ventures has a track record of partnering with startups through initiatives such as its Retail Innovation Network, which Leo Nagdas founded. Azoma’s Agentic Commerce Optimization platform measures and improves how AI shopping agents discover, interpret and recommend products for retailers and CPG brands, a field the firm says is becoming a primary route to purchase.
What we know
86.5% of citations behind Alexa for Shopping’s recommendations come from earned or social media.
76% of citations behind Walmart Sparky’s recommendations come from earned or social media.
37.1% of ChatGPT’s citations come from retailer sources.
Azoma’s analysis of tens of millions of AI responses was conducted in the second quarter of 2026.
Leo Nagdas, Head of dunnhumby ventures, has joined Azoma as advisor to the board as part of the investment.