2021-07-15 Shopic Nabs $10M Investment To Expand Use Of Smart Cart Tech Israeli startup Shopic, a provider of mobile self-checkout and AI-powered retail solutions announced on Tuesday that it raised an additional $10 million to bring its total equity funding to $21 million. Claridge Israel led the funding round and existing investors Entrée Capital, IBI Tech Fund, and Tal Capital also participated. The company said the new funding will go toward expanding its team and accelerating commercial ventures. "We're excited to announce this additional funding that will help us progress more rapidly as we expand our solution into new stores and retail partners," said Raz Golan, CEO and co-founder of Shopic. The startup was founded in 2015 and developed an AI-powered clip-on device that turns an ordinary shopping cart into a "smart cart." The device uses computer vision to track when customers add and remove items from their shopping cart. This also allows customers to skip the checkout line because the device already knows what the customer is purchasing. Shopic says there are several benefits to its technology: It improves the customer experience by eliminating friction from shopping, allows the client to show promotions on the device, collects data for sales analytics, and protects against suspicious customer activity. For retailers, the company says its analytics engine optimizes store management with real-time tracking of shopping carts and store shelves, providing them with live data on a shopping journey and the shopper's various interactions in the store. The company took part in Intel's startup growth program Ignite last year. "Shopic has been developing retail-specific AI for several years, and we've gained intimate knowledge of the space and our customers' unique needs," said Eran Kravitz, Shopic's co-founder and CTO. "Our computer vision technology solves many of the challenges of the noisy, visual-heavy environment of big supermarkets, while still delivering fast performance at very high accuracy levels." These developments have helped Shopic expand thus far, already working with large retailers in the US, Europe, and Israel. According to the company's announcement, more than 90 percent of customers like the smart cart and felt that it improved their shopping experience. The announcement also said shoppers' basket sizes grew by more than 10 percent with Shopic. Rami Hadar, a managing partner at Claridge Israel, explained why he thinks Shopic will continue to succeed. "Shopic's solution provides supermarkets a competitive edge that is affordable and scalable, without having to make significant changes to their stores' infrastructure," Hadar said. "After following the industry closely over the last few years, we truly believe that Shopic offers the most scalable, economically efficient solution and we look forward to supporting the company on its journey in becoming a leader in its space," he added. Oded Tal, founding managing partner of Claridge Israel, will be joining Shopic's Board of Directors. Back...