Retail Innovation Council partners with dunnhumby to define a new gold standard in European retail technology innovation

• Partnership marks a strategic collaboration to streamline how retailers and CPG brands innovate
• dunnhumby has developed the Retail Innovation Index guiding retailers along their innovation journeys
• Index offered to retailer and CPG executive members of the Retail Innovation Council and dunnhumby’s global partner network

London, UK, 5 March 2026 | Retail Innovation Council (RIC) and dunnhumby have today announced a new partnership to bring pioneering innovation insights to Europe’s leading retailers. The partnership starts today with the launch of the dunnhumby Retail Innovation Index (RIX) for RIC’s executive members.

By leveraging its Executive Committees, the RIC will act as a collaborative platform for continued evolution of innovation best practices and industry-wide change. This collaboration will be powered from aggregated insights identified by the dunnhumby RIX methodology, which utilises a combination of dunnhumby ventures’ retail innovation expertise and industry-recognised dunnhumby strategic consulting and research capabilities.

“By partnering with long-standing retail technology leader dunnhumby, we will be able to move towards elevating innovation practices across the region while individually supporting each of our executive council members in their leadership roles”, said Sandeep Arora, Chair of the Retail Innovation Council and UK Launchpad.

This launch marks the start of ongoing collaboration between the partners focused on streamlining how retailers choose what innovation to adopt and their ecosystem partner selection decisions. dunnhumby will deliver confidential insights to each research participant providing them with industry-wide innovation ranking and personalised innovation strategy recommendations. The process will identify key organisational blockers, adoption-ready opportunity areas, and actionable priorities.

dunnhumby will also support the RIC and its partner network by developing a new standardised scorecard for choosing technology startups based on their retail adoption readiness. As part of the partnership, Sandeep Arora, the Chair of the RIC joins the Judging Committee for dunnhumby’s newly launched Ecosystem Startup of the Year competition.

Leo Nagdas, Head of Corporate Development & Innovation at dunnhumby, joins the RIC to lead its Strategy & Innovation Executive Steering Committee: “With over fifty thousand organisations claiming to operate in the AI space this ecosystem explosion is disrupting retailer and brand innovation decisions due to an overabundance of choices – which use cases, when, and with which vendors to test”, said Leo Nagdas. “Legacy research providers and generalist innovation advisors may fail to account for foundational end consumer preferences and retail persona decisions. Our specialty expertise, combined with RIC’s executive platform, can guide industry executives towards clarity in today’s uncertain times.”

The RIX will initially be offered exclusively to the RIC members and the dunnhumby partner network. Senior retailer executives interested in supporting the initiative are invited to request to join the RIC and the dunnhumby Retail Innovation Network. Both communities are exclusive but complimentary for senior retail executives.

Contact to join the RIC: www.retailinnovationcouncil.com or [email protected]

Apply to join the dunnhumby Retail Innovation Network: https://www.dunnhumby.com/about-us/dunnhumby-ventures/ or [email protected]

About dunnhumby

The science of serving every customer. Together. At scale.

As the essential intelligence layer connecting the world’s leading retailers and brands dunnhumby helps businesses grow through faster, better decision making.

Sitting at the intersection of loyalty, media, and category management, dunnhumby helps to navigate complex and competing priorities. Combining AI-enabled science, software, and trusted advice, together with over 35 years of dedicated retail experience, dunnhumby is recognised as a leader in connecting customer insight and action to build loyalty, drive performance, and deliver results that last.

With offices  in locations  across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, dunnhumby works with iconic retailers and brands  including Tesco, Walmart Data Ventures, Coca-Cola, Meijer, Procter & Gamble, and L’Oréal, to make smarter decisions today and tomorrow.

About the Retail Innovation Council

Collaborate. Benchmark. Innovate

The Retail Innovation Council (RIC) is a curated leadership network connecting senior leaders across retail, consumer brands, and the hospitality industry in the UK and Europe to accelerate practical innovation and measurable transformation. Through Executive Committees, Leaders’ Summits and Innovation Challenge Days, RIC enables peer-to-peer knowledge exchange, trusted benchmarking, and high-quality connections between members.

RIC discussions are grounded in real-world delivery - what works, what doesn’t, common pitfalls, and the challenges and priorities senior leaders are tackling right now. Programmes include digital, data & AI, customer experience, supply chain, retail media, sustainability, people & culture, and the operating models required to turn strategy into impact at scale.

Crucially, RIC acts as both catalyst and convener - bringing together best-of-breed experts and partnering with leading organisations to deliver programmes, ensuring members benefit from peer insight and the latest thinking, tools and practitioner experience from leading advisory and technology partners.

About dunnhumby ventures

dunnhumby ventures is dunnhumby's strategic innovation and venture capital arm with a mandate to partner and invest in early-stage retail technology start-ups that embrace data and artificial intelligence for innovation along the customer's path to purchase. We foster industry collaboration via the Retail Innovation Network, our exclusive global ecosystem of 700+ senior retail innovation leaders, and seek to align with partners at an early stage to supercharge their ability to take innovation to market by tapping into dunnhumby's retail industry expertise, pioneering data science assets, and global retailer and supplier partner network.