Radar Achieves Unicorn Status After $170 Million Series B Funding

Radar announced a $170 million Series B round valuing the company at over $1 billion. The round was co-led by Gideon Strategic Partners and Nimble Partners, with Align Ventures participating. Investor Jay Schottenstein, CEO of American Eagle, also contributed. Radar’s technology now serves more than 1,400 stores.

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Founded in 2013 by Spencer Hewett, Radar began with instant checkout via a Peter Thiel fellowship, then pivoted to RFID inventory management to address retailer stock-tracking challenges. Ceiling-mounted readers capture RFID tags with 99 % accuracy.

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Spencer Hewett remains CEO, having founded Radar in 2013 as a Peter Thiel fellowship alumnus. Jay Schottenstein, CEO of American Eagle, is an investor and the first retailer to roll out Radar’s system chain-wide. Gideon Strategic Partners, Nimble Partners and Align Ventures co-led the Series B round and supply scaling capital.

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Radar’s RFID platform reads tags with 99 % accuracy across over 1,400 stores, including American Eagle and Old Navy. Clients report buy-online-pick-up cancellations dropping from 25 % to 3 % and a 60 % shrink reduction at one store.

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Real-time visibility lets associates locate any size or color instantly, cutting out-of-stock incidents and lost sales. Managers can verify shipments on arrival, reducing manual counts and flagging discrepancies promptly.

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American Eagle CEO Jay Schottenstein said Radar’s solution boosts inventory visibility, empowers associates and sharpens operational insights, supporting a customer-first strategy. Founder Spencer Hewett added the technology gives staff certainty, eliminates manual counts and protects revenue and margin with accurate, real-time checks.

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Radar declined to release comprehensive performance data, offering only selective anecdotes. The lack of aggregated metrics limits independent assessment of the platform’s effectiveness across its retailer base.

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• “American Eagle has unlocked greater inventory visibility, empowered our associates and sharpened our insights,” — Jay Schottenstein, CEO, American Eagle

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• “If a customer asks them, 'I want this in a different size' they can immediately see where in the store it is, no matter where it's been moved, and get it for the customer,” — Spencer Hewett, Founder & CEO, Radar

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• “You don't have the labor hours to go and count every box that gets shipped, so you have to accept what they say is there and assume it's true,” — Spencer Hewett

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• “With Radar, like, you actually have a real time check to make sure that it is true, and then flag it immediately if it's not.” — Spencer Hewett

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Radar’s disclosures rely on isolated client reports, like a single store’s 60 % shrink reduction, without broader audited data. The full scale of inventory accuracy gains and financial impact across its retailer network remains unverified.

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