Israeli retail analytics insight company Anagog has won the X5 Retail-Tech Challenge competition for retail innovation. The competition was held this week in Tel Aviv by the Israel-Russia Chamber of Commerce, for the X5 retail group, Russia's largest retail chain.
Anagog's management are traveling to Moscow to make a pitch to the retail chain's senior executives for a major contract from the chain. Evigence Sensors finished second in the competition and Varcode and Tarritech tied for third place.
Anagog was founded in 2010 by Gil Levy and Yaron Aizenbud. In 2015, Ofer Tziperman joined the company as CEO and an investor. The company's investors include: carmaker Daimler together with Mizmaa Ventures, and Volkswagen car units Porsche and Skoda, and others. The technology developed by Anagog can analyze the signals produced by mobile devices without affecting its battery life. Such analysis allows the phone to identify the condition of the mobile phones of its owner and improve the user experience. Anagog operates an independent AI engine on the back of the device, without needing to transmit data to the far-away central server, which also has advantages in terms of data security and the user's privacy.
The competition aroused interest among technology companies as well as investment funds and retail chains in Israel. The reason for this is due to the opportunity for collaboration with a giant food chain possessing 41 distribution centers and 278,000 employees worldwide. In 2018, X5's revenue was about $33 billion with 80 million people coming to the chain's stores.
X5 Group arranged the competition in Israel as part of its worldwide journey seeking technological innovation for the retail sector - a journey that also includes Singapore, Japan, China, Spain and Germany. Israel was chosen as the first stop out because it is recognized as a focus of innovation.
Anagog was selected as one of the 10 companies, which won through to the final stage, which was held today (Tuesday) in the Azrieli Sarona tower in Tel Aviv. Among the other companies that made presentations in the final stage were Tarritech, which is engaged in the protection of produce after it is picked, Varcode, which has developed a way to track the temperature of products throughout the transportation process, Tukuoro, which allows voice enabled input and output on phones, Evigence, which has developed smart time-temperature sensors allowing companies to provide secure and quality products to their customers and other companies.
The panel of judges included X5 representatives as well as senior representatives from Israel's high-tech industry including: Neilsen Innovate Fund and Technological Incubator CEO Dov Yarkoni, Olympic medalist Yael Arad, StoreDot founder Prof. Simon Litsyn, Viola Fund's Yael Alroy, Dolev Pomeranz from Trax, and Yozma Fund Chairman Yigal Erlich.
During the competition, the judges examined the Israeli technologies while placing emphasis on the strategic targets of the X5 Group: improving the customer experience, streamlining operations in stores, robots in branches, optimal management of the logistics chain, improvement in back-office performance, and tracking consignments and supervising the quality of food.
X5 Innovation Director Ivan Melnik said, "The activities of Israeli startups attract investors from around the world and we are delighted at the opportunity to begin our journey of discovery here of all places. We congratulate Anagog on winning and hope that we can sign an agreement with them and install Israeli innovation into the company's operating systems and the chain's branches in Russia."
Adv Anna Moshe, Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer Baratz law firm senior partner and Israel-Russia Chamber of Commerce chair said, "We set as our target attracting large Russian players to the Israeli ecosystem and to bridge the gaps and strengthen commercial ties between the countries. X5 is a large, strategic player that can benefit from Israel's high-tech capabilities and companies developing technologies in the retail world can also benefit from this connection, to such a power in this sector."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 31, 2019
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