Startup New Generation Builds Agent-Friendly Storefronts for Brands

Artificial intelligence (AI) commerce startup New Generation — or New Gen — said Tuesday (May 20) that it has raised $4.5 million in seed funding to help brands adapt to the rise of AI-powered shopping.

Co-founded by Harvard Business School alumni Adam Behrens and Jonathan Arena, the startup is creating digital storefronts designed for both human customers and AI agents.

“We firmly believe brands that build for both humans and machines will own the future of commerce,” Arena said in a statement.

Traffic to U.S. retail websites from generative AI sources grew by 1,200% between July and February, according to New Gen, citing data from Adobe.

“Commerce is entering a conversational, AI-driven era where customers expect direct answers, not a scavenger hunt,” Behrens said. “Brands need new infrastructure built to engage both humans and AI agents simultaneously.”

New Gen’s platform transforms static product catalogs into AI-readable data while layering a GenAI interface on top.

Human shoppers get instant visual answers through prompting while AI agents access a specific subdomain (for example, ai.brand.com).

This subdomain also acts as an entry point for AI-driven traffic, so brands can transition to AI-native commerce “without overhauling their existing websites or technology stacks,” the startup said.

As more consumers begin shopping through AI interfaces like ChatGPT, New Gen aims to help brands convert high-intent traffic into sales with visual, dynamic experiences.

“Traditional websites weren’t built for this AI-first world,” Arena said. “We’re giving brands the tools to thrive in the next era of digital commerce.”

Read more: Forget Browsing. The Agentic AI Internet of Tomorrow Will Find You First

Freshflow’s AI Offers Smart Ordering of Produce

AI startup Freshflow said Tuesday (May 20) that it has raised 6.5 million euros ($7.3 million) to expand its AI-powered platform that helps grocers improve ordering of fresh produce.

Most supermarkets today still order produce manually based on intuition, which leads to shortages and food waste, according to the startup.

Freshflow’s AI-powered technology handles the unpredictability of fresh produce — short shelf lives, messy data and supply variability. It uses probabilistic forecasting and optimization to automate and improve ordering.

Freshflow’s system helps retailers optimize fresh food ordering — cutting food waste by over 20% and boosting sales by 2% to 5%.

Bastien Gelin, CEO of Groupe Yabe, a major Carrefour franchiser, said his company has been working with Freshflow’s AI for nine months.

“We have radically improved our process in the fresh produce departments. We have seen strong results: more inventory turns, less waste and more freshness,” Gelin said.

Freshflow said it built its AI from scratch, instead of putting a wrapper around AI models like ChatGPT.

The round is led by World Fund, Capnamic, Venture Stars, Caesar Ventures and Catatumbo Capital — all prior investors.

The company plans to grow its team from 30 to 50, and aims to reduce food waste by 50% across the entire supply chain.