Standard Cognition announced yesterday that it has raised $40 million Series A round of funding to fuel its cashierless technology solution which creates Amazon Go-like shopping experiences. The round was lead by Initialized Capital and brings the total amount raised by Standard Cognition to $51 million.
Amazon kicked off the whole walk-into-a-store-grab-what-you-want-and-walk-out payment system with the launch of its first Amazon Go store in Seattle earlier this year. As we approach the end of 2018, Amazon continues to roll out these stores at a rapid pace, putting up new ones in Chicago, San Francisco and soon New York (to go along with its flashy new half-HQ2).
Standard Cognition operates a little differently; it’s not trying to build its own armada of retail locations. Instead it provides its technology to third-party retailers who want to open up their own cashierless stores. Standard Cognition opened up a store in San Francisco earlier this year to show off its technology, and says it has agreements with four retailers across Asia, North America and Europe.
It looks like 2019 will be the year cashierless checkout will start to see some real traction in the marketplace. Sam’s Club just debuted its first cashierless store. Walmart is reportedly working with Microsoft on cashierless retail. 7-Eleven recently introduced its attempt at cashierless convenience. And just this week it was announced that Shufersal, Israel’s largest supermarket chain, will install Trigo Vision’s cashierless tech across all of its 272 stores.
We’ve used the Seattle Amazon Go store a few times and found the experience to be seamless and oddly natural for such a new concept. With so many competitors in the market, and so many retailers not wanting to cede the future of retail to Amazon, expect more funding for cashierless startups and more stores rolling out the technology throughout next year.
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