Trigo, an Israel-based computer vision company building the infrastructure for autonomous retail stores and retail analytics has raised $100 million in a new equity financing round to scale deployment of autonomous urban supermarkets across Europe and the US, enter new geographies, and develop its comprehensive store and inventory management software application suite, StoreOS™.
Frictionless shopping, also called seamless or cashierless shopping, where shoppers can pick their items and walk out without queuing at checkout, is gaining traction globally as grocery giants scramble to match consumer expectations for convenience and personalization on the one hand, while keeping costs down and optimizing inventory and supply chain management. Smart checkout technology is estimated to process nearly $400 billion of transactions within the next five years, according to Juniper Research.
The investment was led by Singapore investment firm Temasek and 83North. New strategic investors include SAP SE, who will also help commercialize Trigo’s solution. Existing investors joined the round, including Hetz Ventures, Red Dot Capital Partners, Vertex Ventures, Viola, and supermarket giant REWE Group, one of the world’s leading retailers.
Trigo transforms existing supermarkets into fully autonomous digital stores where feeds from ceiling-mounted cameras and shelf sensors are analyzed to generate a “digital twin” of the store. Computer vision algorithms - similar to the ones on driverless cars - log interactions between humans and merchandise. The result is a fundamental transformation in the way physical stores are being managed and experienced by both shoppers and operators. For example, shoppers can walk into stores, select their items off the shelves, and leave without having to queue at checkout or scan any goods. Payments and receipts are settled digitally.
