Last Updated: 1 June 2026
Handshake, a London-based startup building an AI-powered platform for retail commercial agreements, has raised $3.2 million in its first disclosed funding round. The company was co-founded by Alex Lindsay and Peter Welch and is focused on a problem that tends to fly under the radar: the process by which retailers and suppliers agree on pricing, shelf space, rebates, and promotional terms.
Walk down any grocery aisle and what you see is the visible result of hundreds of those agreements. Behind each product sits a trail of negotiations over space, activation, costs, and dozens of other conditions. Yet for all the technology investment in retail over the past decade, most of these deals are still managed the old way: spreadsheets, email threads, and conversations that never get written down. Fewer than 50% of suppliers currently have a written agreement with the retailers they sell to. The retail sourcing and procurement software market was valued at $6.51 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $25.35 billion by 2033, according to SkyQuest, a reflection of how much room there is for platforms that can bring order to this process.
The $3.2 million round was led by Triple Point Ventures, with participation from Future Back Ventures by Bain & Company, Octopus Ventures, and other retail technology investors.
Retail is a low-margin business, and commercial teams feel that pressure directly. Inflation, shifting supply chains, and stricter compliance demands have added to the load. A category buyer at a large grocer might be managing 100 or more supplier relationships at once, each one with its own set of price structures, promotional obligations, and contract terms. Without a shared system, teams are left piecing things together from email histories and manually maintained files, which creates a real risk of payment errors, disagreements over terms, and gaps in what leadership can actually see.
Retailers have put serious money into logistics, e-commerce, and customer data over the past decade. The commercial agreements side of the business has not kept up. Those agreements sit at the centre of how margin is made or lost, and yet the tools available to manage them have barely changed.
"Handshake is transforming how retailers and suppliers work together, and its team combines the technical depth and category expertise this problem demands. This is a category ripe for disruption in the age of AI."
Cameron Ramsay, Director at Future Back Ventures by Bain & Company
The money will go toward product development, growing the engineering and customer success teams, and building closer partnerships with retailers and suppliers. Handshake has not disclosed headcount targets.
The founders describe their broader goal as building an AI-native operating system for retail buying. In practice, that means a single platform where every party to a deal can see the same information, track progress against commitments, and access a shared record that neither side can dispute. That kind of transparency is largely absent from how these deals are handled today. The platform is designed to automate routine tasks and surface useful data from commercial agreements, freeing up buying teams to focus on the decisions that actually require their judgment.
"Technology has transformed almost every corner of retail over the past decade, but retail buying still runs largely on spreadsheets, disconnected systems, and anecdotal memory. That creates enormous operational complexity in an industry where margins are tight and every commercial decision matters."
Alex Lindsay, CEO and co-founder of Handshake
Founded in 2024 and based in London, Handshake built its platform for the commercial teams inside retail businesses: buyers, commercial operations, finance, and retail media teams. The product lets retailers, wholesalers, and suppliers make, track, and execute agreements in one place, replacing the mix of disconnected tools most teams use today.
The platform covers the full agreement process, from first proposal to final execution. Users can send and receive proposals, negotiate terms, and monitor whether commitments are being met, all within the same system. AI is used to handle routine workflows and help teams manage high volumes of supplier activity without losing track of the detail.
Gopuff, the US online retailer, is already using the platform to manage supplier agreements across multiple product categories.
Triple Point Ventures led the round. Future Back Ventures by Bain & Company and Octopus Ventures also participated, alongside additional retail technology investors. Cameron Ramsay of Future Back Ventures noted that Bain's direct retail experience reinforced the firm's confidence in the opportunity.
"Retail buying is a brutally tough job, and the sector faces structural headwinds that show no signs of easing. The commercial teams at the heart of it deserve better tools, visibility, and outcomes, which is why we built Handshake."
Peter Welch, CTO and co-founder of Handshake
