John Lewis launches The Eureka Initiative

The John Lewis Partnership is joining forces with TrueStart, the independent retail and consumer accelerator and investment fund, to find and fund products, services and technologies which will define how we live in the future.

The Eureka Initiative will enable startups within TrueStart’s own accelerator programme, The Collection, to gain exposure to the John Lewis’ retail capabilities, a press statement said, with the aim of bringing the best ideas to commercial reality and nurture never-seen-before products and services from the drawing board to customers via the shop floor and website.

John Lewis Partnership, group development director, Tom Athron, said: “The John Lewis Partnership began life as a brave entrepreneurial experiment. By collaborating with TrueStart we will be supporting the future growth of our company by partnering with like-minded entrepreneurs and fast tracking their ideas. I firmly believe that all businesses focused on growth in a rapidly changing world will need a few eureka moments to thrive.”

John Lewis teams up with TrueStart

One startup that will benefit from The Eureka Initiative is TrueStart-backed, Photosphere, a technology platform that enables retailers and brands to create real-time, personalised video content for its customers. Photospire is in discussions with the John Lewis regarding activation activities that target the brand’s customers with product recommendation videos tailored to individual customers.

Matt Truman, chief executive at True Capital, the retail and consumer sector-specialist private equity firm which owns TrueStart, added: “TrueStart looks to work with genuinely disruptive businesses that have the potential to inform real change in the retail sector. I am delighted to welcome the John Lewis Partnership on board as our latest strategic partner.

“By joining forces we can lean on our joint expertise to ensure that the retail industry keeps innovation at its core, transforming the fashion, home and technology sectors in these rapidly changing times.”

The Eureka Initiative aims to complement the successful incubator currently run by John Lewis, JLAB, which aims to deliver a broader range of new products and services across the department store portfolio and has already uncovered technology-based solutions to some of John Lewis’s operational challenges.

Image: courtesy of John Lewis