Millennium Food-Tech (TASE: MIFT.L) today announced that it has led a $10 million financing round in Israeli supermarket checkout scanning systems developer Supersmart.
Supersmart develops automatic AI systems for retail chains. As part of the financing round, Millennium Food-Tech will invest up to $5 million, in participation with other funds and investors. The current financing round will be used to support the growth of the company and increase its global customers base, and to continue deploying and enlarging sales among existing customers, while strengthening and developing its existing technology, expanding marketing of the product to new areas, developing new products, and hiring employees.
Millennium Food-Tech will invest $3 million in the first stage. This is the tenth investment since the Millennium Food-Tech R&D Partnership held its IPO 18 months ago on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) including leading the $70 million financing round in flexible compostable packaging solutions company TIPA earlier this month.
Supersmart has developed technology that allows supermarket customers to install an app on their mobile devices that scans products at the time of purchase. At the checkout, the customer puts the cart through the scanning unit, where cameras, AI and weighing sensors validate the contents of the cart in three seconds, adds up the bill, and makes certain that all the products in the cart have actually been scanned. The technology allows the customer to pay through an app or a special pay station and receive their bill slip directly to their mobile phone and then leave the store without needing to wait in line at the checkout. The shopping experience is thus enhanced and the retailer is able to provide more efficient and improved service and reduce loss of goods through theft and errors by 90%.
Supersmart, which was founded in 2014, raised about $10 million to date, before the latest financing round and has 40 employees in Israel. The company’s solution is fully deployed by many retailers around the world including Metro, Edeka, and Selgros, and installation has begun at leading retail chains in the US. In Israel, Superstore’s system operates in the branches of the Osher Ad supermarket chain, which was the first to believe in the solution and install it in all its branches, and in the Shuk Ha’Ir chain. The company’s solutions are installed at other customers including in Germany, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Ukraine, Romania, Spain and Hungary. Another breakthrough is expected this year in the US, where Supersmart has signed agreements for several projects with leading chains.
Supersmart CFO Ofer Ilan: "The belief shown in us by Millennium Food-Tech, as well as existing investors and the world’s leading marketing chains, establishes Supersmart as a leading solution, which upgrades the customer experience, in an easily applied way, and through which checkout lines will become a thing of the past. We are leading the supermarket checkout revolution, which includes a technological app that prevents mistakes and theft. We are excited about the installation of our technology in new markets around the world. Together with the marketing chains, we can provide and lead genuine change in the retail world. The investment in question will help us as a company to further the development of the product and expand into additional markets."
Millennium Food-Tech, which is managed by CEO Chanan Schneider and chairman Guy Rosen, specializes in personally tailored nutrition, protein substitutes, reducing food waste and leftovers, smart packaging, artificial intelligence in the food sector and new food ingredients. The company has raised NIS 118 million to date.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 16, 2022.
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