Israeli-Singapore retail analytics company Trax has raised $640 million in a Series E financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and technology-focused funds managed by existing investor BlackRock and with participation from new investors including OMERS, and Sony Innovation Fund.
Sources believe that the financing round was completed at a company valuation of $2 billion. In its last financing round in July 2019, Trax raised $100 million at a company valuation of $1.1 billion. This latest round brings to $975 million the amount raised by Trax to date.
An estimated half of the amount raised in this round was part of a secondary offering for the purchase of Trax employees' shares.
Trax was founded in 2010 by chairman Joel Bar-El and president Dror Feldheim, The company has developed image recognition technology that turns shelf images in stores into real-time actionable insights. Trax has 1,000 employees including 250 in its Israel development center. Trax declines to disclose details about revenue but it is believed to be $100-150 million annually from over 500 customers.
Bar-El said, "We are witnessing the retail industry adopt digital technologies at an unprecedented pace and scale. Despite the turbulence of 2020, we made tremendous strides in our business because of the hard work, dedication and team spirit at Trax. Our many solutions address the complex needs of CPG brands and retailers as they rapidly adjust to shifts in consumer behavior. This funding puts Trax confidently at the forefront of the future of retail, where the physical and digital combine in new ways to bring meaningful experiences to shoppers."
Newly appointed Trax CEO Justin Behar said, "Trax has been building its sophisticated, AI-powered, retail cloud platform for more than a decade. We began our journey by creating novel computer vision solutions for retail and have since broadened our capabilities to serve the evolving needs of the modern retail ecosystem. Through this significant investment from SoftBank, BlackRock and others, we will invest in our team, extend our market leadership, continue to scale our retailer business, and drive the next stages of long-term growth and innovation."
J.P. Morgan acted as a placement agent to Trax on this investment round.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 7, 2021
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2021