Loops, an enterprise AI company focused on ecommerce, has raised a US$3.5 million Seed round to expand its integrated shopping platform. The investment was led by a16z speedrun, with participation from NTT Docomo, Connecticut Innovations, Alumni Ventures, and Monday Capital. The funding will support product development, customer deployment capacity, and international expansion as the company works to unify AI-powered commerce.
A Fragmented AI Landscape
AI is arriving in ecommerce one workflow at a time, with separate tools for search, shopper questions, product descriptions, and virtual try-on. Retailers are often left to stitch these point solutions together, which can create uneven customer experiences. Loops was built around the idea that AI can collapse those disconnected experiences into one continuous journey.
Investor Support and Strategic Goals
The Seed round brings together investors from venture capital, corporate innovation, and public-private funding. NTT Docomo's participation signals international demand, while Connecticut Innovations adds state-linked support and Alumni Ventures and Monday Capital contribute broader venture networks. Loops will direct the capital toward product development, customer deployment capacity, and international expansion as it scales its agentic commerce platform.
How the Platform Works
Loops follows the shopper from the first search to the moment they click buy. Shoppers describe what they want in plain language, and AI search surfaces relevant products without keywords, filters, or internal catalog logic getting in the way. A built-in shopping assistant answers questions, guides decisions, and carries service conversations across connected channels, while product enrichment and virtual try-on sharpen catalog data and reduce purchase hesitation.
Company Origins
Loops began with a failed purchase in Bali, where co-founder Ilker Selim Zorluoglu tried to buy a gift for his daughter and waited hours for a retailer to respond. He never completed the purchase, and the founders later found a larger gap between how shoppers wanted to ask for products and how most ecommerce actually worked. Co-founder Ari Nazir built the first prototype over a weekend, and the company has since grown to more than 70 customers and pilots.
Early Results with Retailers
Turkish supermarket chain A101 uses Loops to help customers navigate its catalog and receive assistance throughout the buying journey. In a published comparison, sessions involving the platform showed roughly 83% higher observed purchase conversion than the comparison segment, a result the company describes as observational rather than randomized. Fashion retailer Mavi uses Loops for AI search and shopping assistance, allowing customers to describe what they want by style, occasion, or fit.
From Commerce to Vertical AI Operating Systems
Loops sees commerce as the first chapter of a broader enterprise AI strategy. The company believes lasting platforms will be built deeply inside individual industries, carrying the knowledge, integrations, agents, and controls needed to run real workflows. It is now developing specialized small-language-model capabilities and plans to enter financial services and energy next.
Loops is entering a competitive market where many ecommerce platforms are adding AI features, but few are connecting them into a single customer journey. Its early traction with retailers and its roadmap into other verticals indicate a broader ambition to become an AI-native operating system. The company will now need to prove that this integrated approach can scale reliably across larger catalogs, more demanding customers, and complex industries.