Singapore-Israeli retail store analytics company Trax has announced its acquisition of French startup Planorama in a cash deal. Planorama, which is developing artificial intelligence image identification solutions for consumer product manufacturers and retail chains, is one of the leading European companies in this niche. The acquisition price was not announced, but market sources believe that the deal was at a company value in the tens of millions of dollars, based on the acquired company's annual revenue of $10 million, according to reports in the global press.
Trax, founded in 2010 by Joel Bar-El and Dror Feldheim, develops technology for computer vision and data analysis for retail chains. The company's software is capable of processing images in stores and producing business and marketing information from them for consumer product manufacturers and retail chains. Trax's customers include Coca Cola and Shufersal. The company's headquarters are in Singapore, with a development center in Israel with 250 employees, a number set to grow to 350 in the coming year.
Planorama was founded in Paris in 2009 by Vincent Jacques. The company develops computer vision technology capable of identifying products, based on images of shelves in physical stores, and providing its customers with insights about their shopping patterns. These insights are designed to help in marketing, sales, and arranging products on shelves in order to maximize sales. Planorama has 100 employees in Europe, who will be added to Trax's 700 employees following the acquisition. The employees of the acquired company will probably become the European branch of Trax, thereby enhancing the company's access to retail and manufacturing customers in Europe.
The acquisition comes one week after Trax completed a $100 million financing round at a company value of over $1 billion. Feldheim says that the financing round was designed to help finance three acquisitions in recent months: Planorama, US company Shopkick (for $200 million one month ago), and Chinese company LenzTech, which Trax announced in early June.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 29, 2019
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