Reliance on outdated personalization engines based on old technology is one of the biggest barriers to customer retention for eCommerce companies, leaving them lagging behind consumers’ ever-evolving trends and interests. Industry giants like Amazon, Spotify, and Netflix have invested hundreds of millions into new AI driven personalisation technologies, creating an ever increasing distance between the high-tech players and the rest of the market. As a result, many businesses struggle to keep up, creating a large unmet need for a high-tech specialist company to create a cutting edge solution that can be implemented widely in the industry, closing the gap.
Albatross' (RAC VII) co-founders, Dr. Kevin Kahn (CEO) and Dr. Matteo Ruffini (CSO) know this challenge firsthand, having designed, developed and refined industry-defining machine learning recommendation systems at Amazon and Skyscanner. They have partnered with co-founder Johan Boissard (CTO), who brings extensive experience in creating and implementing highly scalable cloud-based enterprise software solutions. Together, they are now channeling their expertise into a next-generation AI software platform, enabling the wider industry to benefit from cutting-edge personalisation algorithms.
We are delighted to support Albatross’ groundbreaking technology by leading their €3M formation funding round, with participation from Daphni and industry experts such as Gilles Despas, Apostolos Apostolakis, and Kabir Chhatwani.
so, what exactly is Albatross’ platform?
It combines state-of-the-art deep learning with a live-feedback, active-learning model to predict which products are most relevant to each customer. The platform continuously adapts based on customers’ website visits - without invasive technologies such as tracking cookies - leading to more relevant recommendations, and thus, higher conversion rates. Businesses also benefit from advanced algorithms without the heavy upfront costs or lengthy integration times typically associated with non-software solutions or building complex machine learning infrastructure.
Dr. Kevin Kahn (CEO) explains, “Users want to be inspired and guided on their discovery journey. Most recommendation systems react to user intent, but this approach falls short in a rapidly evolving landscape of catalogs and interests. Worse still, traditional technologies over-focus on popular items, leaving much of the catalog undiscovered and causing user fatigue. Our platform ensures fresh recommendations by dynamically matching users with the right products at the right time.”
led by industry pioneers
Given the rapid advances in AI technologies applied to personalization, the number of leaders who have experience building state-of-the-art personalization engines is incredibly small. Albatross’ founding team is not only part of this limited talent pool of leaders, they also have extensive experience delivering commercially successful and highly profitable AI solutions at scale.
Kevin (CEO) brings extensive experience as an AI/ML product leader at Amazon, where he led one of Amazon Music's top machine learning initiatives focused on personalization. Matteo (CSO) is also ex-Amazon, with 15 years of AI expertise ranging from hands-on implementation to strategic leadership, including as the Head of Applied Science at Amazon Personalization and author of a number of AI personalization papers coming out of Amazon. Johan (CTO) leverages his deep technical expertise in building and scaling complex systems, with experience integrating software across Fortune 500 companies and numerous tech startups, including SaaS cloud solutions, crypto accounting, and open banking.
a trillion dollar opportunity
Albatross addresses several large markets across multiple verticals, with eCommerce alone projected to reach $4.4 trillion by 2024. Both customer-based and product-based personalization are key components of this growth, with outdated cookies and search-based approaches currently dominating the market. Faced with the choice of inefficient and invasive cookie technology, or prohibitively expensive, state-of-the-art in-house personalization engines, the eCommerce industry is ripe for a new solution.
“We’re excited to support such an incredible team with a proven track record in AI and personalization, right at the inception of Albatross,” said Marc Moesser, speaking on the investment. “The platform Albatross is building has the potential to be a game-changer, bringing the kind of personalization sophistication currently seen only at companies like YouTube and Netflix to businesses of all sizes.”
the future of eCommerce
Albatross’s use of active learning algorithms, combined with generative AI and large language models (LLMs), will create a more immersive and interactive experience, making traditional search bars obsolete.
We believe AI will transform the eCommerce industry, fundamentally changing how customers discover and purchase products and services. As interacting with websites through language models becomes as simple as asking a chatbot, the range of products and services users can explore will greatly expand, but will demand more personalized, relevant results, making tools like Albatross’ increasingly essential.
We are excited to be part of the journey and look forward to supporting the team as they empower businesses across sectors and industries with this next-generation solution!
Read more about Albatross in Tech EU.