A startup that builds technology to help retailers keep up with Amazon is announcing some funding to expand its business. Trigo is an Israeli startup that builds technology for stores to operate cashier-free, "just walk out" experiences similar to those found in Amazon Go stores.
Trigo focuses on grocery shopping, and it already has a high profile list of grocery retailers on its books, including the UK based supermarket giant, Tesco. With a strong slate of competition in the market, the plan is to use the funding to expand its engagement with these. Standard Cognition was last year valued at over $1 billion and is one of the many others in the same category.
Expanding its technology will be doubled down. Trigo also provides inventory management and will soon be launchingStoreOS to bring these together with other tools to help physical retailers link up their brick-and-mortar stores better with
The round is co-leading by Singapore's Temasek and 83North, as well as new backer Hetz and previous backers.
According to PitchBook, the startup's last valuation was in the region of $200 million. The total raised is nearly $300 million.
Artificial intelligence, computer vision, machine learning, and other innovations are being put to use in earnest in autonomously systems across a range of industries, and supermarkets have been one of the more interesting applications. Retailers face an onslaught of online offerings to buy groceries and have them delivered to one's home in ever- shorter turnaround times.
Real estate and building costs, the rotation of products, theft and the cost of maintaining a staff are some of the inefficiencies associated with in-store. It is not the technology for technology's sake, but that it will help reduce costs and losses in all of these areas, while speeding up the experience for customers.
Trigo's self-check-out solution, called "Easy Out," is based around a series of overhead cameras, shelf sensors and algorithm that work with "digital twins" of stores to operate cashier-free experiences.
Some believe that this is a costly approach, both in terms of initial installation and maintenance, and that other approaches, such as systems that sit on shopping carts themselves, is the better approach.
Full-store checkout based on artificial intelligence-powered cameras and sensors, where the costs of the hardware are decreasing over time, is superior in both the experience it provides shoppers and for the efficiency and tools it enables retailers He said that carts don't account for shoppers who only buy a few items. Regardless of the size of their basket or how they plan to shop, frictionless checkout makes shopping easy. If you have a full shopping cart, you don't want to wait in line at the cashier or use self checkout, you just want to walk out.
The "digital twin" approach that Trigo uses, which mirrors the store in real time, is more accurate and can be used for more than just check out. He said that smart carts and similar technologies don't allow for the full digitization of the store.
Gabay said that the bigger issue with stores and shoppers is inflation and people worried about prices of goods, not how long it takes to buy them, has not deterred conversations with customers. In times of high inflation, rising prices, and supply chain disruptions, the value of managing the inventory and procurement is huge. The company doesn't say how much it costs to equip a supermarket with its technology, but it does say that it usually returns the investment within 18 months. He said that tech-enabled cost savings accumulate over time.
One of the arguments for Trigo is that it can be used for all shopping, no matter the size of the cart. Gabay said that it has opened stores of between 3000 and 5000 square feet, but that it is now working on larger formats, including more than 10,000 square feet.
The longer-term plan for the company is to expand into other categories of retail such as pharmacy and quick service restaurants. There is huge potential to retrofit thousands of existing grocery stores. Grocers are connecting their e- commerce shops to their physical stores.
This is where the picture is going to end up. It works with its own long list of retailer customers and the plan is to integrate Trigo into those systems.
The infrastructure for grab-and-go shopping and the foundation for additional in-store scenarios of the future were built byTrigo. As a leading provider of enterprise software for the retail industry,SAP is delighted to join as a strategic investor to Trigo to support the development of the StoreOS. The way towards building an intelligent store will be paved with their solutions.
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