Corina Marshall spent 11 years working in retail digital marketing and realized the industry was behind the times.
Specifically, the technology that helped retail brands sell unsold or excess products (off-channel inventory) wasn’t as sophisticated as it could have been. Brands sell their excess inventory at discount retailers like Nordstrom Rack, but often lose money because managing unsold inventory is difficult. Products are spread across warehouses, and teams are left guessing the value of an item and when the best time to sell it is.
“Too much time passes between each step of the off-channel inventory funnel, making it difficult to move products to the destinations that are most favorable for the brands and retailers,” Marshall told TechCrunch.
She decided to give the off-channel market a tech boost. In 2024, she launched her company Another, a software system that helps companies manage unsold or excess products. The secondary markets where these items are usually sold operate under tight timelines and can feature highly dynamic pricing due to fluctuating demand. For a retailer to succeed in a place like Nordstrom Rack, it needs to have fast access to real-time data and coordination so that clothes can efficiently move from the retailer to the warehouse to the store, she said.
Another connects to a business’s existing software systems, such as those that manage customer returns, to better centralize an organization’s data and workflows. This way, teams across the company can access data from the same place, making decision-making more effective.
The company announced Tuesday a $2.5 million seed round led by Anthemis FIL and Westbound.
Marshall said she met her lead investors through an industry event last year and said the fresh capital will be used to speed product development and hire. She considers her competitors’ marketplaces like Ghost, another company that also helps brands sell unsold inventory.
However, she said, Another hopes to help companies address excess inventory before brands opt to sell items to bulk resellers. She says items sold through such resellers may be deeply discounted, an outcome brands might not want.
“Another’s technology provides real-time data and insights that give teams confidence in when, where, and how to move inventory, enabling smarter decisions that maximize value rather than defaulting to liquidation,” she said. Overall, she hopes her product helps move the industry toward solutions that better balance profitability and sustainability, as excess inventory is often destroyed if it is not moved quickly enough.
“Consumers gain access to better prices, more optionality, while brands and retailers improve profitability and reduce waste, making it a win for everyone involved.”