Firstime Venture Capital are a venture capital fund, investing in Pre A & A rounds, in cutting edge, disruptive technologies, based on state of the art ideas and headed by brilliant people.   Firstime Venture Capital invest in 'digital life technologies' companies with a POC and initial customer base and provide them with the funding they need to peacefully strive to a product-market fit and generate initial revenues.  This brings them to a solid KPIs achievement before seeking a proper A round. Digital Life Technologies, include: Mobile, Social, IOT, Video, E-commerce, Fintech, Ed-tech, Ad-tech, Cyber, AI, VR/AR, Digital Health, Gaming, Media, etc.

Firstime Venture Capital

HTC Corp is engaged in the design, development, and manufacture of smartphones and tablets in Taiwan.   The company offers PDA phones and smartphones for mobile operators and distributors in Europe, the United States, and Asia. These machines are available as HTC devices and as products individually customized for operators and device partners. The company provides its own HTC self-branded products as well as supports operator-branded products and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners. It owns Dopod as a subsidiary company and is a member of the Open Handset Alliance.   The company’s products are sold under various brand names such as HTC, Dopod, and Qtek and are often rebranded by major telecommunication carriers. Its products also include pocket PC phones (PDA Phone), ultra mobile phones, HTC kovsky (Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1), and HTC dream (T-mobile G1).   HTC Corp was founded by Cher Wang and Peter Chou in 1997. It is headquartered in New Taipei City, Taiwan.

By entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, Sarona Ventures is a unique investment fund applying world-class business practices to leverage our investments and pro-actively transform promising technology driven companies into international organizations. Sarona Ventures is the venture evolution of the Bouaziz & Partners Family Office (Deel, Notion, Sorare, Verbit, Clickhouse and more)  We invest globally, building companies to which we can significantly contribute by applying our domain expertise and business execution.

Sarona Ventures

ByondXR

ByondXR is a retail-tech company that enables developed an immersive commerce platform to help brands, retailers and wholesalers create unique virtual stores and showrooms in the metaverse, those stores forms a strong and memorable connection between brands and their customers and increase discovery, conversion and retargeting KPIs.

ByondXR is a retail technology company that specializes in creating immersive virtual environments and digital showrooms for brands and retailers. Their platform enables businesses to build and manage highly realistic 3D virtual stores and showrooms, replicating the in-person shopping experience online. ByondXR's photorealistic environments, comprehensive navigation tools, and array of customizable add-ons and plugins allow for an engaging and interactive virtual shopping journey.

Living Proof Enters the Metaverse with First Virtual Reality Storefront Partnering with Leading Experiential E-Commerce Creator, ByondXR

ByondXR Helps Brands Take Metaverse Experience to the Next Level

VNTANA Partners with ByondXR to Instantly Create Interactive 3D Virtual Showrooms in the Metaverse

B2B Retail Tech Firm ByondXR, eCommerce Company Vntana to Create Virtual Showrooms

Empowering the digital revolution in retail

Digital Retail Enhancement Platforms

Unilever

Living proof, a hair care brand by Unilever, partnered with experiential ecommerce platform ByondXR to launch a virtual store that offers an AI hair quiz, allowing customers to personalize their hair care routine.

The intersection of beauty and technology to deliver hyper-personalized products.

Beauty Tech

Companies that formulate customized hair and other beauty solutions such as fragrances, leveraging technologies such as AI/ML to tailor product recommendations, which are directly sold to consumers.

ByondXR is a retail technology company that specializes in creating immersive virtual environments and digital showrooms for brands and retailers. Their platform enables businesses to build and manage highly realistic 3D virtual stores and showrooms, replicating the in-person shopping experience online. ByondXR's photorealistic environments, comprehensive navigation tools, and array of customizable add-ons and plugins allow for an engaging and interactive virtual shopping journey.
The company's virtual solutions have not only provided a lifeline for businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic but also positioned them for success in the emerging metaverse realm. ByondXR's platform seamlessly integrates with major ecommerce platforms like Salesforce, Shopify, Magento, and SAP, ensuring a seamless transition from physical to virtual retail.
In May 2022, ByondXR partnered with VNTANA, a 3D ecommerce technology leader, enabling their customers to instantly create interactive 3D virtual showrooms from existing design files. This integration streamlined the process of transforming 3D assets into lightweight, optimized versions for virtual environments without compromising quality.
ByondXR has deployed hundreds of virtual stores in over 30 countries across the US, Europe, Asia, and South America, empowering many Fortune 500 companies to scale their virtual presence rapidly with personalized stores in each market. By providing comprehensive analytics on consumer behavior, ByondXR helps brands enhance the user journey and drive conversions.

Intelligence Node is a leading provider of retail analytics solutions that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. The company offers dynamic pricing and market analytics tools to help businesses navigate the complexities of ecommerce, set competitive prices, and better understand market trends.
At the core of Intelligence Node's offerings is a massive database containing over 3.5 billion unique product SKUs across 1,400 categories and 29 languages. This extensive dataset, combined with proprietary algorithms and advanced matching capabilities, enables the company to provide highly accurate real-time insights into pricing, product availability, and market trends.
Intelligence Node's solutions are designed to address key challenges faced by retailers, such as the inability to effectively track competitors, difficulties in pricing products optimally, and identifying gaps in product catalogs. The company's tools collect and analyze real-time data on pricing, discounts, and catalog movements across the retail landscape, allowing decision-makers to benchmark against competitors and make informed pricing decisions.
In addition to pricing analytics, Intelligence Node also offers solutions for content optimization and product listing enhancement. By leveraging generative AI capabilities, the company helps retailers create compelling and search-optimized product descriptions, improving visibility and conversion rates across online channels.
Intelligence Node has formed strategic partnerships with major retailers to enhance the online shopping experience and empower third-party sellers. The company's solutions enable retailers to provide clearer and more informative product listings, better insights into product performance, and improved search rankings across digital marketplaces.

Intelligence Node

Obsess is an experiential ecommerce platform that leverages augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology to create immersive, shoppable 3D virtual retail environments for brands and retailers. The platform allows companies to construct photorealistic digital spaces where customers can explore products in a visually engaging and interactive manner. Obsess' virtual stores aim to drive product discovery, customer engagement, clickthrough rates, session duration, average order value, and conversion for its clients.
Obsess' proprietary technology enables brands to offer seamless and memorable branded virtual experiences without requiring customers to download an app or use a headset. The platform supports various features such as walking and talking avatars, gamification elements, educational content, and social media integrations to enhance the shopping experience. As of February 2023, Obsess had created virtual stores in over 45 countries, supporting more than 30 languages.
The company has partnered with renowned brands across industries, including Sam's Club, Charlotte Tilbury, Diesel, Dior, Party City, Tommy Hilfiger, J.Crew, and Elizabeth Arden, to launch immersive virtual shopping experiences. In June 2023, J.Crew unveiled the "Virtual Beach House," a 360-degree virtual store celebrating the brand's 40th anniversary, featuring themed rooms, product displays, historical catalogs, and interactive games. Similarly, Elizabeth Arden launched a shoppable virtual store in May 2023 to engage younger, tech-savvy consumers and showcase its heritage through digital storytelling.
Key customers and partnerships
In February 2024, Mytheresa, an ecommerce platform, collaborated with Obsess to launch an exclusive visionOS app for Apple's Vision Pro headset. The app offers users a hyper-realistic digital luxury shopping experience in virtual environments like Capri and Paris, featuring curated collections from brands such as Loewe, Valentino, and Saint Laurent. The partnership aims to transform traditional ecommerce into an emotional and engaging shopping journey.

Obsess

Namogoo is a pioneer in the Digital Journey Continuity platform space. The company offers a platform that autonomously adapts to each customer visit in real-time, shaping the customer journey to fit each shopper's needs while eliminating any distractions along the way. Namogoo's proprietary machine learning technology predicts each visitor's intent by learning from their unique digital behavior signals, empowering enterprises to act on this intent and ensure online shoppers complete their journeys.
The platform collects data from visitors' devices and their journeys, segmenting them into real-time audiences. It surfaces high-converting audiences that are 3-10 times more likely to purchase than average visitors. Additionally, Namogoo identifies user populations that do not convert due to UX conflicts, browser issues, or site design flaws, enabling brands to rectify these problems seamlessly.
In April 2022, Namogoo launched the "Customer Journey OS," a revolutionary software platform that enables ecommerce teams to deliver hyper-personalized journeys based on shoppers' real-time needs. It orchestrates all digital services running on the customer journey to work cohesively toward shared goals. The platform leverages Namogoo's vast network of over one billion unique visitors to provide real-time insights based on industry benchmarks.
Namogoo's solutions have been successfully implemented by leading brands such as Victoria's Secret, Neiman Marcus, ASICS, Marks & Spencer, Kurt Geiger, Carhartt, Eddie Bauer, GlassesUS.com, and Ariat, consistently driving uplifts in conversion rates, revenue per visitor (RPV), and overall revenue. The company was founded in 2014 and has raised USD 81 million to date.
In January 2023, Namogoo made a second round of layoffs, parting ways with 15% of its workforce, following an earlier round in November 2022 where 25% of employees were let go. Despite these cutbacks, the company reported continued growth and profitability.

Namogoo

Yalo is a software platform that utilizes AI-powered conversational agents to optimize the customer journey, driving increased conversions and customer satisfaction. Its technology facilitates direct communication between businesses and customers through popular messaging applications like WhatsApp. Yalo's platform empowers teams to collaborate on managing and tracking campaigns, automating workflows with insightful metrics.
Primarily catering to marketers, small, and medium enterprises, Yalo's conversational commerce approach seamlessly guides customers through the purchasing process while maximizing product potential. By combining customer service and sales support, the platform offers a unique and engaging experience for users.
As of November 2023, Yalo reported having 1.6 million companies utilizing its platform to manage customer interactions via messaging channels. The company's innovative solutions have garnered a diverse clientele, including industry giants like Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Mondelez, Coppel, Banco Azteca, and GPA.
In May 2021, Yalo secured a USD 50 million Series C funding round led by B Capital Group, bringing its total raised capital to USD 75 million since its inception in 2015. The funds were allocated to expand operations in Latin America and Southeast Asia while developing new products, such as a conversational marketing solution.
Key customers and partnerships
Yalo has established partnerships with major global brands across various industries. Notable customers included Unilever, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and Walmart. Specifically, John Santa Maria, CEO of Coca-Cola FEMSA, acknowledged the significant sales uplift achieved through their conversational commerce partnership with Yalo, with nearly half a million corner stores placing orders via WhatsApp.

Yalo

NewStore is a modular, mobile-first omnichannel cloud platform that provides an Omnichannel-as-a-Service solution for retail brands worldwide. The platform enables retailers to deliver seamless shopping experiences across online, mobile, and in-store channels, leveraging modern technologies such as iOS devices for point-of-sale, inventory management, and order fulfillment.NewStore's platform comprises several modules, including POS, order management, clienteling, inventory, and native consumer apps. The order management and store fulfillment solutions utilize proprietary routing logic to allocate orders across a brand's brick-and-mortar locations and distribution centers based on predefined criteria, optimizing shipping times, inventory accuracy, and sell-through rates.The platform facilitates omnichannel capabilities like buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), buy online, return in-store (BORIS), and endless aisle, enhancing the customer experience while driving store traffic. NewStore's solutions seamlessly integrate with existing tech stacks, such as Salesforce systems and middleware platforms like MuleSoft and Azure.Prominent retail brands like Burton, Faherty Brand, G-Star RAW, Marine Layer, Roots Canada, Scotch &amp; Soda, UNTUCKit, and Vince have adopted NewStore's platform, benefiting from its comprehensive omnichannel retail solution. In March 2023, NewStore expanded its offerings to a global scale, assessing the omnichannel competence of 275 retail brands across Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK

NewStore

Solutions for retailers that offer insights to improve the product assortment they offer on their digital shelves, increase sales, improve conversions, and boost brand trust

Platforms for retailers and brands to build immersive ecommerce shopping experiences commonly leveraging AR, AI, digital twin, and 3D technologies

Solutions for retailers to enhance online shopping experiences, personalization, and conversion rates while delivering analytics on individual customer journeys to improve shopper engagement

Offers insights to retailers and brands by aggregating and analyzing data across multiple sales channels to boost sales

Solutions providing analytics for brands and retailers to improve competitive position, such as competitor pricing and assortment insights, high-level customer insights to reduce churn, and optimize web traffic

Platforms that provide retailers and brands with greater visibility on overall ecommerce operations to enhance decision-making—commonly through dashboards—including sales forecasting

Virtual stores may leverage digital twins to deliver immersive shopping experiences

Retail enhancement solutions can be offered in a B2B SaaS model

Retail enhancement solutions leverage AI to deliver better insights to businesses, to enable decision making

Improves the personalized offerings for retail customers

Virtual store solutions leverage 3D and AR to create an immersive digital shopping experience

ByondXR

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