E-commerce brand Shopify has acquired Vantage Discovery, a startup that builds AI-powered search technology for retailers. This is a part of Shopify’s ongoing efforts to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities.
Vantage Discovery was founded in early 2023 by former Pinterest engineers Lance Riedel and Nigel Daley, to bring “Pinterest-like search functionality” to any e-commerce business. The company leverages large language models (LLMs) to help retailers enhance their on-site search tools, delivering more personalized and relevant results for shoppers browsing product catalogs.
READ: Drugmaker AstraZeneca to acquire EsoBiotec for $1 billion (March 17, 2025)
“In the past, machine learning and AI had been held by some of the much bigger companies,” Daley said. He also added, “Now with Gen AI and technology like Vantage Discovery, we can bring that same power to any retailer, from the smallest mom-and-pop shop to massive enterprises.”
Riedel mentioned in a Linkedin post from March 15 that Vantage discovery has joined Shopify to “supercharge e-commerce with the most intelligent product search and discovery capabilities on the planet.” He added, “At Vantage Discovery, we built a cutting-edge, AI-powered SaaS platform that transformed the way retailers connect with their customers—moving beyond traditional keyword searches and cumbersome merchandising rules to deliver personalized, intuitive online experiences.”
This comes amid an AI-acquisition streak for Shopify. The company had, over the past year acquired six different AI companies, and brought in AI and machine learning veteran Mikhail Parakhin as CTO. The financial details of Shopify’s acquisition of Vantage Discovery have not been publicly disclosed at the time of writing this article.
READ: China disrupts AI market with DeepSeek: A better, cheaper version of ChatGPT? (January 27, 2025)
While these acquisitions have been modest, they have also been important for talent acquisition with notable hires including Nicolas Grasset, the co-founder and CEO of Peel, and Rousseau Kazi, the co-founder and CEO of Threads. “These have been very tactical, thoughtful AI hires,” Shopify CFO Jeff Hoffmeister said during the company’s February earnings call.
The latest acquisition of Vantage Discovery signals a growing interest in AI, and an intent to double down on automation using gen AI tools, that were once available only to tech giants.