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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Trax

Trax Raises $640M for its Computer Vision-based Grocery Inventory Management

Trax, a computer vision company that helps physical retailers and CPG companies with inventory management, announced today that it has raised a $640 million Series E round of funding. The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and funds management by existing investor BlackRock. Other investors include OMERS and Sony Innovation Fund by IGV. This brings the total amount of funding raised by Trax to more than $1 billion.

The Trax system uses a combination of camera installations, shelf-scanning robots and computer vision to monitor products on store shelves. Product Images are sent to Trax’s cloud-based machine learning system to analyze and identify when inventory is low on store shelves, or when items are misplaced.

Trax is also used by CPG companies to help them audit store shelves to ensure they are getting the placement they paid for.

Trax, which launched its Retail Watch service in the U.S. back in October of 2020, isn’t the only company using computer vision to help stores manage inventory. Cashierless checkout systems like Grabango and Trigo promise similar, constant shelf monitoring and visibility through camera installations and advanced computer vision. And robots from Simbe and Bossa Nova offer less installation-intensive solutions.

Trax is certainly striking while the funding iron is hot. Grocery related startups have raised a bunch of money in 2021. In addition to the raft of grocery delivery startups that have secured big raises, companies that are helping physical grocery retailers are also raking in cash. Stor.AI, which helps grocers deploy online shopping services, and Shelf Engine, which helps grocers with inventory forecasting, both raised significant rounds last month.

Trax Launches its Computer Vision-Based Inventory System in the U.S.

Singapore-based Trax announced earlier this week that it has officially launched its Retail Watch computer vision-based inventory management system for grocers here in the U.S.

As we’ve covered previously, Trax retrofits stores with customized camera modules on ceilings and on shelves. These cameras snap a picture of the store’s inventory every hour and send those pics to Trax’s cloud, which uses machine learning to analyze each image to see which products are empty and if any products have been misplaced or mis-priced. A report is then sent to store management, who can then dispatch associates to re-stock and replace items.

According to this week’s U.S. announcement], the company has added autonomous robots to its tech stack, but didn’t specify their use or prominence in the overall offering.

A Trax rep told me last year that stores using its system saw a 1 percent bump in sales through improved item stocking. That 1 percent may not sound like much, but it adds up if used across multiple locations for a single retail chain. Plus, 1 percent promises to just come from better workflow of existing practices (inventory management), not adding new ones.

In addition to retailers, Trax’ also counts CPG companies among its customers. For CPG companies, Trax is more of an auditing tool to monitor shelf presence at stores to ensure they are getting what they paid for.

While keeping a close eye on store shelves may not sound sexy, it is becoming an increasingly competitive field. Walmart has developed its own computer vision-based inventory tool. And Bossa Nova, Simbe Robotics and Badger Technologies all make shelf-scanning robots.

For retailers, having more up-to-date inventory data can translate into more revenue. For consumers, it can mean fewer product outages should shocks to the system like pandemic panic buying occur again.

Trax Uses Shelf Cameras and Computer Vision to Track Grocery Inventory

For grocery retailers that operate at scale, small improvements can have a big impact on the bottom line. One of the ways to boost that bottom line, according to Trax, is better shelf inventory management.

Based in Singapore, Trax uses a combination of shelf and ceiling cameras, along with computer vision, to give retailers and CPG companies a more accurate reading of what’s on store shelves.

Trax installs customized camera modules on store shelves to keep tabs on products. Trax also augments these shelf cameras with ceiling mounted cameras for monitoring fresh sections of stores. The cameras take a picture of the every hour, and those images are sent to the cloud, where they are analyzed to ensure that products are available, on the correct shelf and price compliant. Based on what the system reports back, store associates can be dispatched to address any issues.

I spoke with Mark Cook, Head of Retailer Solutions for Trax, by phone this week, and he told me that retailers using the Trax inventory management system have seen a 1 percent bump in sales by just ensuring that more product is in stock. One percent may not sound like a lot, but again, when multiplied across all the shelves in a store, and across all the stores in a chain, that small percentage can represent big money.

In addition to grocery retailers, Trax also counts CPG companies like Coca-Cola and Henkel as customers. CPG companies use Trax basically for auditing. With the system, they can monitor their shelf presence in stores and ensure they are getting what they are paying for in terms of promotion.

Trax has a SaaS business model where the hardware is provided and the customer pays a subscription fee for the analytics.

If Trax’s solution sounds familiar, that’s because other companies are taking similar approach to automating shelf management. Walmart is deploying Bossa Nova shelf-scanning robots to roam it store floors, and the mega-retailer also launched its IRL store this year, which uses banks of cameras to monitor store inventory in real-time.

Trigo is another company using cameras to help stores with inventory management, though Trigo is mostly focused on using computer vision to help create cashierless checkout systems for stores. I asked Cook if cashierless checkout was on Trax’s roadmap and he said the company is more focused now just on shelf management. “There’s money on the table with inventory.”

Founded in 2010, Trax is headquartered in Singapore and has roughly 800 employees. The company has CPG customers in 70 different countries. Cook wouldn’t disclose retail partners, but said it is working with retailers in the U.S., U.K. and Israel.