True Stories

We’re excited to announce our strategic partnership with Represent, a UK-based luxury fashion brand reshaping the boundaries of luxury and performance sportswear.

AI is transforming consumer markets by making high-cost services more accessible and affordable. This parallels past tech revolutions, like personal computing and the gig economy, where innovation and cost reduction spurred market expansion. AI's rapid, scalable advancements, championed by major companies, are creating massive new demand. The market potential is vast, with history hinting at billion-dollar opportunities—and we're excited to support founders shaping this future.

Hush has appointed Philip Mountford, former CEO of Hunkemöller and Moss, as its new chairman. With over 40 years of executive retail experience, including his role as Managing Director at Versace and a 15-year tenure as CEO of Hunkemöller, Mountford brings valuable expertise. His appointment follows a successful brand relaunch and strengthens Hush’s leadership as it pursues growth in the UK and internationally.

The Cotswold Company have announced the opening of a delivery driver training academy (CHD) and a further delivery depot, moving them steadily closer to becoming a leading premium homeware brand in the UK.

The retail sector is in constant evolution, shifting in response to the ebb and flow of consumer demands, macroeconomic factors and increasingly, environmental concerns. As the environmental footprint of both retailers and consumers comes under growing scrutiny, we’re closely watching a handful of exciting technologies poised to address these challenges, helping the industry become more sustainable.

The customer contact landscape has undergone a substantial transformation. The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in natural language processing (NLP) and generative AI, has reshaped the customer contact landscape in ways that seemed futuristic just one year ago. This prompted us to revisit and update our research, resulting in our new Customer Contact 3.0 report. 

Portfolio company, The Cotswold Company, the digitally-led premium handcrafted furniture and homeware brand, is pleased to announce plans to open its 10th UK store, located in Stamford, in September.

In the year to date, the Group has recorded a 96% increase in revenue generated by upholstery, driven by its highly popular lines such as Talbot & Morris. Below TCC announce the roll-out of its innovative Upholstery Hubs -an in-showroom offer that provides customers with a one-stop-shop for all their upholstery needs.

At True, we pride ourselves on being specialist investors in the Consumer and Retail sectors. Many associate "Consumer" with D2C physical products, but the reality is much broader. In this blog, Mike Martin, Director in the VC team shares more on our investment strategy and remit.

We’ve distilled the key takeaways from the Retail Jam 2024 into four main themes: Ethical Sourcing & Sustainability, AI & Digital Transformation, Omnichannel Strategies, and Customer Insights & Engagement. To put each point into context with what we’re seeing on the Innovation Advisory side of True, Danielle Le Toullec (Head of Marketing at True) interviews Gursh Mendhir (Innovation Principal).

Amid an abundance of technology solutions, the challenge for retailers is not one of opportunity but navigation, maintains Matt Truman in his latest Retail Week column.

In light of London Tech Week, we hosted an evening of drinks, canapes and insights that brought together leaders from the retail, consumer, and technology sectors. There was a dynamic panel discussion on corporate innovation with industry experts, Clare Forbes, Director of Technology at Fortnum & Mason, Farrukh Hassain, Investment Director at Sony Innovation Fund, Omar Hassan, Managing Director of Global Growth Hub, moderated by Danielle Le Toullec, Head of Growth & Marketing at True.