Standard Cognition has a raised $150 million in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from existing investors CRV, EQT Ventures and TI Platform Management and new investors including SK Networks. This brings the solution provider’s total funding above $236 million, which will enable Standard to execute at scale its plans to outfit more than 50,000 checkout-free stores in the next five years.
Standard powers checkout-free experiences with an AI-driven computer vision solution that primarily uses ceiling-mounted cameras to detect which items a person picks up. The system uses no facial recognition and lets shoppers remain completely anonymous, and is designed to be installed in existing stores without making any changes to layout, shelving, lighting or inventory management processes.
The company is currently working with customers such as Alimentation Couche-Tard, parent company of Circle K, and Compass Group to outfit hundreds of checkout-free stores in 2021 and beyond. Compass Group worked with Standard to open its first public stores at the University of Houston and in office buildings in Charlotte, N.C. and Toronto, Canada.
“Retailers find themselves in the midst of a perfect storm, as they struggle for razor-thin margins, battle the likes of Amazon and Walmart, and are beaten down by COVID-19,” said Jordan Fisher, Co-Founder and CEO of Standard in a statement. “As stores across the world shut their doors, retailers and their customers have waited for a technology like computer vision to help drive the industry forward.”
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