Consumer Analysis Firm Added to Walmart Basket

Israeli start-up Aspectiva, whose software analyses consumer product reviews, has been acquired by US retail giant Walmart, for an undisclosed sum.

Aspectiva was founded in 2013, uses proprietary machine learning and NLP techniques to provide online and in-store product recommendations, among other outputs, and has raised $4m from investors led by Jerusalem Venture Partners. Walmart will add the firm to its Store No 8 technology incubator, whose Principal Lori Flees says technologies in this area 'will have profound impact on how customers will shop in the future'.

Walmart's previous acquisitions have included predictive intelligence start-up Inkiru in 2013, and product data specialist Adchemy a year later. Last summer it was awarded a US patent for a system which listens in to sounds in its stores, from checkout beeps and bags rustling to 'conversations between guests and employees'.

The firm is online at www.aspectiva.com .