VTEX Announces Winners of the 2026 Retail Tech Award, Reinforcing its Strategic Bet on the European Startup Ecosystem
The global commerce leader accelerates European expansion by integrating cutting-edge startup innovations directly into its enterprise ecosystem
Barcelona, Spain – October 7, 2026 – VTEX (NYSE: VTEX), the backbone for connected commerce, today announced Optifeed, Routal and Tinkery as the winners of the VTEX Retail Tech Award, designed to discover and support Europe’s next generation of retail technology innovators and executed in collaboration with Bcombinator, a Barcelona-based innovation hub. By connecting emerging startups with its enterprise commerce ecosystem, VTEX aims to help founders turn promising technology into practical solutions for retailers and brands.
Following an evaluation of live demonstrations and functional integrations, Optifeed took first place for its AI-native commerce marketing solution, Routal placed second for its last-mile logistics management technology, and Tinkery ranked third for its AI-powered commercial intelligence platform.
The VTEX Retail Tech Award supports VTEX’s commitment to strengthening its European partner ecosystem and helping retailers access emerging technologies. By leveraging Bcombinator’s startup network, the initiative connected VTEX with promising European tech founders. This provided startups with a stage to highlight their solutions' integration capabilities with VTEX and showcase how they solve critical challenges for enterprise brands and retailers.
"At VTEX, our growth is intrinsically linked to the strength of our ecosystem," said Alexandre Soncini, Co-founder of VTEX. "The innovation of European startups is one of the main drivers of the next wave of commerce evolution, and VTEX is committed to being one of the catalysts that helps them scale globally. Through the Retail Tech Award, we are creating opportunities for founders to demonstrate their technology and build relationships within our ecosystem, with the ambition of helping them reach customers beyond their home markets".
Recognizing European Retail Technology Innovation
The competition attracted about 100 participating startups, with seven finalists advancing to the final stage after months of developing functional integrations and demonstrating the value of their solutions for VTEX retailers and brands. We are proud to recognize all seven finalists who reached the final stage of the program: Optifeed, Routal, Tinkery, Datafine, ByNeural, Shoptimus, and Lovi.ai.
The top three winners were selected for their exceptional technical standards and clear vision for the future of retail: 1st Place – Optifeed, 2nd Place – Routal and 3rd Place – Tinkery.
The VTEX Retail Tech Award goes beyond a singular accolade. VTEX is actively engaging with all the finalists to explore how they can integrate their innovative solutions into the VTEX ecosystem and sell their services to VTEX customers.
To honor the achievements of all participants, VTEX hosted a celebration at its Barcelona regional hub on Tuesday, September 30th, bringing together the founders, the Bcombinator team, and VTEX leadership.
About VTEX
VTEX (NYSE: VTEX) is the AI-native commerce suite designed for CIOs and CEOs, focused on driving operational efficiency. Evolving from software into a connected platform, VTEX unifies a multi-product ecosystem—comprising a Commerce platform (VTEX Commerce Platform), an Ads platform (VTEX Ads Platform), and an AI conversational platform (VTEX CX Platform)—to deliver solutions such as B2C Omnichannel, B2B commerce, agent-assisted customer service, WhatsApp Store, distributed OMS, marketplace enablement, and advertising solutions. This architecture enables brands and retailers to eliminate friction, orchestrate operations, and accelerate profitable growth.
Trusted by approximately 2,200 customers—including Carrefour, Colgate, OBI, Stanley Black & Decker, KitchenAid, Whirlpool, and Electrolux—across 44 countries, VTEX brings the best of Brazilian engineering to the global market. For more information, visit www.vtex.com.
About Bcombinator
Bcombinator is a Barcelona-based innovation hub and pre-seed VC supporting early-stage technology startups through acceleration, investment, and access to a network of founders, investors, and corporations. With more than 120 startups accelerated and over 80 investments, Bcombinator connects emerging technology companies with leading ecosystem partners to help them validate, grow, and scale. For more information, visit www.bcombinator.com/en/.