Smart grocery shopping cart startup Shopic has secured funding to accelerate the rollout of its clip-on device in the U.S. and Europe.
The Tel Aviv, Israel-based company said it aims to challenge Amazon’s Dash Cart with a clip-on alternative that works with any cart in a seamless “shelf-to-car” shopping experience. The U.S. expansion coincides with Shopic’s $35 million Series B investment round led by Qualcomm Ventures, bringing its total funding raised to $56 million.
Shopic’s AI-powered clip-on device uses computer vision algorithms to identify items placed in the cart in real-time, while displaying product promotions and discounts on related products. The self-service checkout interface allows customers to check out and pay without waiting in line. Shoppers remove the device when they’re done and roll the cart out to the parking lot.
“Today’s consumers are used to friction-free online shopping experiences, but retailers struggle to deliver them for in-store shoppers,” according to Raz Golan, CEO and co-founder of Shopic. “As the only solution that uses full computer vision rather than barcode scanning, Shopic empowers retailers to not only meet customer expectations but to delight them.”
The attachment uses a camera duo inside the cart to support catalogs of over 50,000 items, cover edge cases and achieve low latency with limited processing power. The algorithm can identify products thrown into the cart when it’s in motion or when multiple products are put into the carts simultaneously.
Live system deployments found that Shopic’s solution increased shoppers’ monthly spending by 8%.
Shopic also provides real-time inventory management and customer behavioral reports for retailers through an analytics dashboard. Information also includes aisle heat maps, promotion monitoring and new product adoption metrics.
