Scotch, an AI-native point-of-sale platform for liquor retailers, raises $20 million in Series A funding led by VMG Partners

Scotch secured $20 million in Series A funding from VMG Partners, First Round Capital, Lerer Hippeau and Toba Capital. The Denver-based startup reported greater than 500% year-over-year growth and surpassed $1 billion in processed payment volume.

The platform provides liquor store owners with point-of-sale hardware, custom software, payment processing and back-office management tools. Scotch integrates AI into workflows for inventory and vendor management, claiming to save business owners over a full day of work per week by automating administrative tasks.

The liquor-store industry is highly fragmented and regulated, with more than 200 regional legacy POS systems in use. Scotch positions itself as the only player capable of handling the severe operational and compliance requirements distinct to alcohol retail, serving customers ranging from single-register shops to enterprise stores running over a dozen lanes.