Detroit isn’t just building cars anymore, it’s building engines for growth. Case in point: Swish, the programmatic product trial platform that just secured $2.3 million in seed funding to make sampling smarter, sharper, and profitable. The round was led by BD Ventures, the investment arm of Brand:Detroit, powered by a trio with serious credentials. Jonathan Opdyke, who co-founded HookLogic and sold it to Criteo for $250 million. Roger Ehrenberg, whose IA Ventures seeded DataDog, The Trade Desk, and Wise. And Andrew Ehrenberg, who wears dual hats at Brand:Detroit and Eberg Capital. This isn’t just capital, it’s retail media royalty betting on the future.
At the center is Adam Stave, founder and CEO of Swish. After a decade running deals and strategy at Vericast, BrandShare, eBay Enterprise, Triad Retail Media, and Avanade, he saw the inefficiency of old-school sampling. His solution? Treat the product itself as media. Instead of shouting at consumers from the sidelines, Swish quietly slides full-size products into grocery carts, pickup or delivery, precisely when shoppers are most primed to try. It’s retail media at the point of hunger, not the point of hope.
The pilots are already stacking receipts. With Stater Bros. Markets, Swish distributed 3,600 tubs of cream cheese to lapsed customers. Around 1,100 came back to buy, generating over 4,000 repeat sales. That’s not brand awareness, it’s brand conversion. Retailers win too. Each trial counts as a full sale, creating a new income stream while shoppers feel like they’ve gamed the system. With partners like Mercatus and Upshop, the tech plugs seamlessly into retailers like Giant Eagle, Hy-Vee, SpartanNash, and Lowes Foods. No forklift upgrades, just fresh revenue.
The investor bench runs deep. Jordan Berke, ex-Walmart China ecommerce exec and now CEO of TOMORROW. Scott Friend of Bain Capital Ventures, who’s backed Jet.com, Mirakl, and Attentive. Anil Aggarwal, the force behind ShopTalk and Groceryshop. Mathieu Azorin, who sold Storetail to Criteo. Al Muzaurieta from Good Apple. Plus former HookLogic and CitrusAd leaders. These aren’t passive checks, they’re active operators who know how to build billion-dollar ecosystems.
The tech backbone matters. Proprietary AI, layered with first-party transactional data, predicts intent and measures impact, repeat purchase rates, lifetime value, purchase frequency. Headless integrations make it retailer-friendly, while brands get the transparency they’ve always begged for. It’s the difference between tossing samples at a crowd and placing them in the hands of customers who’ll actually buy again.
Swish is running straight at the $140 billion retail media market forecasted by Bain for 2026, tucked inside the $2.3 trillion global CPG arena. With this seed round, Adam Stave and his team are scaling to more retailers, expanding capabilities, and building headcount. Detroit has its disruptor, and Swish has turned product sampling into a data-driven engine that converts curiosity into cash.
