Three former Spotify engineers have launched Malachyte, a startup designed to bring the AI behind the music streaming giant’s recommendation engine to e-commerce. The company announced it has raised $10 million in seed funding to scale its platform and hire additional leaders. Malachyte’s technology, called 'two-headed Vector AI,' aims to predict shopper intent and tailor experiences in real time, without requiring user accounts or historical data.
The startup’s system is built on the belief that most online stores fail to personalize experiences for first-time visitors or adapt to changing shopper needs. Malachyte’s platform learns from real-time actions, such as searches and clicks, to continuously refine recommendations. Sidd Motwani, Malachyte’s CEO, explained that the system forms a user profile before the first click, using context available when the page loads. "A search for 'heavy-duty boot' followed by two clicks on steel-toed boots is enough to move work pants and gloves up the page and push dress shoes down, with no account or history required," he said.
Malachyte has been developing its technology since 2024 and has worked with over 20 enterprise customers across travel, grocery, and retail before focusing on e-commerce. Its platform first launched with Fun.com in the fall of 2025 and became generally available to Shopify merchants through a native integration in June 2026. Larger retailers can integrate the technology via its API. Looking ahead, Motwani said the company aims to unify merchandising and marketing around a shared understanding of customer behavior.
Source: techcrunch
