Participated · Series B · Mar 2022

AiFi builds camera-only computer-vision systems that let retailers run autonomous, cashierless stores without weighted shelves, supporting app, card, gated or hybrid entry. Its tracking algorithms work in spaces up to 10,000 square feet and the company has deployed in grocery stores, stadiums and music festivals. AiFi has grown from zero public stores two years ago to about 40 stores today, including 30 with Zabka, and recently launched a 6,000-square-foot Aldi store in London and a Carrefour Flash concept in Paris. The company says deployments that once took six months can now be completed in less than one week. Revenue has grown roughly five- to six-fold year over year, and headcount rose from 40 employees in 2020 to 115 worldwide. AiFi plans to use new capital to strengthen its deployment team, accelerate store launches, and invest in product development and feature enhancements. AiFi is a Santa Clara, Calif.-based technology company developing autonomous store technologies, including its Autonomous Store Platform OASIS. Led by co-founder and CEO Steve Gu, the company delivers checkout-free experiences with instantaneous receipts and provides customizations and operational tools for retailers. AiFi says it is creating shopping experiences with major retail partners such as Carrefour, Albert Heijn, and Żabka. The company has partnerships with five of the top 10 U.S. grocery chains, three of the top six European chains, and the number-one chain in Australia. AiFi had 330 stores slated to open in 2021 and expects a range of stores in California and Texas to open by the end of the year. New investments bring the company's total funding raised to date to $30M. AiFi builds an AI-based, checkout-free system using computer vision and real-time analytics for brick-and-mortar retail. The platform is designed to be easy to set up and scale, enabling cashier-less checkout from tiny bodegas to large big-box stores. AiFi provides analytics around transactions, inventory, and consumer behavior so managers can make data-backed operational decisions. Since its launch in 2018, both domestic and international customers — including large supermarkets and leading convenience store chains — have used AiFi's solution. The company is positioned to address a large market opportunity across retail, food services, and convenience stores by improving customer experience and reducing labor costs. AiFi's founding team includes Steve Gu and Ying Zheng, who previously worked at Google, Apple, and HortonWorks. Financially, AiFi closed an $11 million Series A led by Cervin Ventures. AiFi develops a checkout-free retail platform that uses AI, cameras, and sensors to identify items shoppers pick up and track customer behavior in stores. The system is designed to scale from small mom-and-pop shops to large retailers, with stated capacity to track up to 500 people and support tens of thousands of SKUs. AiFi plans to launch a demo store in the San Francisco Bay Area and run a pilot with a larger grocer in New York later this year. The company charges a subscription fee for continued system usage and may expand into payments in the future. AiFi was founded in January 2016, is based in Santa Clara, and has a 25-person engineering team with backgrounds at Google and Apple. The company has raised seed funding and is focused on proving out its technology while addressing cost and privacy concerns tied to deployment.