ATDC

RetailTech Overview

In 2017, Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) launched a new initiative for entrepreneurs focused on retail-related technologies, known as RetailTech. The ATDC RetailTech Program was funded by a $1 million gift from the Mookerji Foundation to the Georgia Tech Foundation.

The addition of this industry vertical at ATDC comes at a critical time. The retail industry is challenged with a torrent of change in consumer behavior and keeping up with the pace of the digital transformations occurring across the sector.  According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), the U.S. retail sector is comprised of more than 3.7 million establishments and supports some 42 million jobs with a $2.6 trillion impact on the economy.  In Georgia alone, the retail industry supports 1.2 million jobs and adds $75.6 billion a year to the economy.

The RetailTech Program works very closely with ATDC’s Financial Technology Program as both complement each other in bringing innovation to the retail industry.

Strategic Collaborators:

Goals:

  1. Provide community, connections, and coaching to RetailTech startups in Georgia — or relocating to the state — to initiate, incubate, and accelerate growth of retail technology-focused companies.
  2. Collaborate with retailers, technologists, engineers, industry professionals and experts, and investors who desire to make an impact on the retail industry.
  3. Help entrepreneurs commercialize Georgia Tech intellectual property that directly benefits and supports innovation in the retail industry.

The types of companies we seek:

Georgia’s RetailTech community is growing in awareness of ATDC’s retail-focused program through our monthly RetailTech Meetups. We seek and offer support to entrepreneurs with scalable technologies that solve major problems with the potential for long-term and meaningful impact on the retail industry.  The technologies can address innovations in supply chain, data collection/analytics/applications, in-store experiences, e-commerce, shipping/delivery, marketing, customer service, payment processing, among other segments and can be in the form of any scalable technology solution —software or hardware.

Do you have a technology that you want to bring to the market to transform the retail industry? Email us at retailtech@atdc.org.