Israeli startup Trigo (formerly Trigo vision), which is developing a system for check-out free stores, announced today that it has raised $22 million led by growth fund Red Dot Capital. Also participating in the financing round are Vertex Venture Capital, the UK-Israeli fund Hetz Ventures. With the latest financing round Trigo has raised $29 million to date.
Trigo was founded in 2018 by brothers CEO Michael and CTO Daniel Gabay, veterans of the Talpiot IDF military intelligence unit which develops artificial intelligence technologies. The company raised $3.5 million each in seed money from venture capital funds Hetz Ventures and Vertex Ventures. Trigo has 45 employees in its Tel Aviv headquarters, most of them computer vision and artificial intelligence professionals with experience at major international companies. The company plans doubling its workforce over the coming year in its Tel Aviv offices.
Trigo's technology is able to track all of the objects in the store, products, people, and carts, using only sensors of RGB cameras. The computer vision technology developed by Trigo Vision is based on reading dynamics and movement and reliance on fewer cameras than in other solutions in the market.
The aim of the latest financing round, according to Trigo, is, "to allow grocery retailers to compete with Amazon Go." In January 2018, Amazon opened Amazon Go, the first automated store without cashiers, in Seattle. Since then, various chains, headed by Walmart, have been operating pilot cashier-less stores utilizing various technologies. Amazon Go's activity currently encompasses 12 stores in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, and the company is planning for 3,000 branches.
Trigo is already partnering with a number of global grocery chains including leading European chains and Israel's largest grocer - Shufersal, which will be deploying Trigo's technology in 280 stores over the next 5 years.
Michael Gabay said, "There is very strong demand globally among grocery retailers to dramatically improve customer experience. The common denominator is that everyone is searching for technology to enable the most seamless in-and-out shopping experience. These new funds will be used to scale our technology further and support our global expansion."
Red Dot Capital managing partner Barak Solomon said, "We believe that Trigo's world-leading computer-vision team will be the first to scale this technology globally and unlock the full potential of a true grocery-wide revolution. The process of manually scanning barcodes for each separate item at checkout is outdated and time consuming. Trigo's technology is going to save brick and mortar, revitalizing the in-store experience while keeping the best part of shopping alive."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 16, 2019
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