Shopic Announces $35M Investment to Bring Its AI-Enabled Smart Cart to Top U.S. Grocery Chains
Tel Aviv, Israel–(Newsfile Corp. – August 9, 2022) – Shopic, the smart grocery shopping cart startup, has announced a $35 million Series B investment round led by Qualcomm Ventures, bringing its total funding raised to $56 million. Other participating investors include Vintage Investment Partners and Clal Insurance, together with Shopic’s existing investors IBI Tech Fund, Tal Ventures, Claridge Israel and Shufersal.
Shopic’s founders, Raz Golan and Eran Kravitz
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Shopic offers an AI-powered clip-on device that transforms shopping carts into smart carts. Utilizing computer vision algorithms, Shopic identifies items placed in the cart in real-time, while displaying to shoppers product promotions and discounts on related products. The Shopic system acts as a self-service checkout interface as well, saving customers the time and hassle of standing in line to pay.
Data collected by the company during live deployments of its system found that Shopic’s solution increased shoppers’ monthly spending by 8%.
Shopic not only delivers a new retail experience for in-store shoppers but also provides real-time inventory management and customer behavioral insights for grocers through its analytics dashboard. These reports also include aisle heatmaps, promotion monitoring and new product adoption metrics.
“Today’s consumers are used to friction-free online shopping experiences, but retailers struggle to deliver them for in-store shoppers,” said Raz Golan, CEO and co-founder of Shopic. “As the only solution that uses full computer vision rather than barcode scanning, Shopic empowers retailers to not only meet customer expectations but to delight them.”
Shopic’s smart cart clip-on
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The Series B investment will be used to expand the company’s penetration to global markets. Shopic’s solutions are already deployed by several grocers in Europe, the Americas and Israel. They include some of the world’s largest supermarket chains.
As opposed to monolithic smart carts, such as Amazon Dash, Shopic’s clip-on device can be used with any shopping cart, offering a highly cost-effective implementation path for grocers. Additionally, shoppers can remove the device when their transactions are complete and use the cart to take their groceries out to the parking lot, completing a truly frictionless shelf-to-car shopping journey.
Inside the cart, Shopic uses a camera duo that enables its AI-computer vision model to support large catalogs of over 50,000 items, cover edge cases and achieve low latency with limited processing power. The algorithm can even identify products thrown into the cart even when it’s in motion or when people put multiple products in their carts simultaneously.
Merav Weinryb, VP of Qualcomm Israel Ltd. and Managing Director of Qualcomm Ventures Israel and Europe, said: “We support Shopic’s vision of hybrid retail, where the best of online shopping and physical store experiences merge. Shopic’s smart cart, which is a compelling and pragmatic smart retail solution is helping enable this future. We were very impressed with the performance of Shopic’s cart in live supermarkets, demonstrating the potential of AI to transform everyday experiences for everyone.”
About Shopic
Shopic provides smart cart and store digitalization solutions to the world’s leading grocers, bringing the advantages of online commerce to their physical stores. The company’s computer vision-based clip-on device turns any regular shopping cart into a smart cart. It delivers a smooth shopping experience, instant on-cart checkout, just-in-time personalized promotions, and analytical insights from the retail floor. Founded in 2015, Shopic is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. For more information, visit Shopic.co.
About Qualcomm Ventures
Qualcomm Ventures, acting through Qualcomm Ventures LLC or its affiliated entities, has been making strategic investments in technology companies that have the potential to dramatically transform our world since 2000. As a global investor, we look to help entrepreneurs build revolutionary businesses that reshape the world around us. For more information please visit qualcommventures.com.
Media contact:
Avi Krupman
avi@inboundjunction.com
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