The new business unit will be led by dunnhumby Ventures’ head, Kyle Fugere (pictured).

Fugere said: "As part of my role operating the venture capital fund, I have had the opportunity to work hand in hand, as a board member and as an advisor, with start-ups around the world. In my dual role leading dh Labs, I am working with the team to take the lessons learned from working with high-growth start-ups and applying them to our most promising innovations."

David Jack, CTO of dunnhumby, added: "We are extremely proud to be empowering businesses everywhere to compete and thrive in the modern data-driven economy with our science, product and computational execution innovation."

The dh Labs team is currently working on several products to transform three areas of common challenges for retailers and brands: 360 view of the customer – with HuYu a B2C mobile app that sources behavioural, attitudinal and lifestyle data directly from verified customers; speed-of-thought insights – with the OneFour analytical engine calculates customer-based metrics; and automated machine learning – dh Evolve is an automated machine-learning platform focused on solving complex retail challenges.