Verizon Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures LLC announced strategic investments in AiFi, an autonomous shopping solutions company, as it raised $65 million in a Series B round, with the help of other partners ALDI South Group, Żabka Group and REWE.
With the pandemic accelerating the adoption of self-checkout lines and in-store pickup, entrepreneurs are creating the next generation of retail,” according to Jeffrey Black, Verizon Ventures Director, in a prepared statement.
AiFi, which was founded in 2016, uses AI-powered computer vision technology to provide contactless autonomous shopping. AiFi’s AI platform allows retailers to implement autonomous shopping, using camera-only solutions that ensure accuracy as it tracks a customer’s autonomous shopping activities.
In the growing marketplace for such systems, AiFi competes with Amazon and Zippin. According to AiFi, the new round of funding joins an earlier $15 million round, giving the company an $80 million war chest. Last fall, Zippin raised a $30 million B round to move its total funding to $45 million.
Verizon worked with AiFi to implement a store at The Indy 500 using Verizon’s 5G. Once customers entered the AiFi “NanoStore” by scanning the app, the computer vision-technology around the store observed and tracked the items that they chose. When done shopping, the customers received a receipt on their app or email after leaving the store, with an accuracy rate of 99 percent.
AiFi and Verizon also partnered on similar stores that were deployed last fall at Ford Field for Detroit Lions games, and at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, as well as at the BottleRock music festival in Napa Valley. According to AiFi, the company uses Verizon’s 5G connectivity to power the back-end computing needed for such stores, which allows them to place the “pop-up” buildings in remote locations like parking lots or stadium entryways. Like Amazon and Zippin, whose technologies are already being used at several stadiums for concessions services, AiFi sees sports venues as a natural fit for its technology.
“Verizon Ventures is always on the lookout for entrepreneurs building on the future of 5G. When I saw the product they were building, the potential also became clear, especially given Verizon’s advancements in 5G and MEC,” Black said.
Editor’s note: this post is by J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor. It originally appeared on the Inside Towers website. Additional reporting by Paul Kapustka, STR.
