Humby to Advise New Retail Investment Firm

International investment business LetterOne (L1) has launched a retail investment arm, L1 Retail, and appointed dunnhumby co-founder and data pioneer Clive Humby to its Advisory Board.

L1's existing investments are in the energy, telecoms and technology, and health sectors, in companies with operations in 31 countries around the world. The new division says a combination of 'store and online assets, combined with state of the art analytics and logistics, will drive growth in the next 10 to 20 years'. The firm will invest up to $3 bn in 'a small number of retailers that have the potential to become market leaders in their segments and markets', initially in Europe, including the UK, and in the emerging markets (with the exception of Russia).

Also joining the new division's Advisory Board is John Walden, former CEO of Home Retail Group, and credited with guiding the digital transformation of Argos, as its MD from 2012 to 2014.

Humby (pictured) is already an investor in theatre analytics specialist Purple Seven and Chief Data Scientist at social media specialist Starcount. He set up customer science company dunnhumby with his wife Edwina Dunn in 1989, providing the system running Tesco's Clubcard loyalty scheme; and the pair sold their final shares in the company to Tesco in 2010. Heis currently visiting professor in Integrated Marketing at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, USA and in Marketing at Cranfield University.

He says of the new firm: 'Understanding customer behaviour and adapting to new trends is the key to success. Data is the new oil. It's immensely valuable, but if unrefined it cannot really be used. I look forward to working with L1 Retail to identify consumer emerging trends and themes as they invest in new platforms for growth'.

The L1 Retail investment team will be based in London and led by Managing Partner Stephan DuCharme, former CEO and current non-executive Chairman of X5 Retail Group, Russia's largest food retailer.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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