Position Imaging – a developer of some of the world’s most advanced location tracking technologies – recently announced that it has raised $30 million via intellectual property (IP)-based debt financing. The funding round was provided by GT Investment Partners and facilitated by insurance and valuation services provided by Aon. The financing will help drive Position Imaging’s growth into the retail, hospitality, and travel markets while expanding into the EU with its global partner network.
The company’s Smart Package Room and iPickup platforms are expected to change how first and last-mile e-commerce fulfillment operates, with self-service operations without inefficient, expensive alternatives like staff, lockers, or robots.
The Smart Package Room solution is a new package management system created by Position Imaging, and this innovation uses proprietary AI-based computer vision developed by the company to track packages as they are delivered into rooms at multi-family residences, college campuses, and at office locations. And Smart Package Room enables self-service drop-off and pickup, enabling staff to focus on more important work to improve operations vs. managing package deliveries and pickups. This system optimizes space better than antiquated legacy solutions like lockers that lose over half their capacity to metal and inaccurate package-to-compartment staging. The systems also scale easily to accommodate increases in package/product volume.
iPickup is a new platform from Position Imaging that is based on the same self-serve tracking technology used in the Smart Package Room solution but is focused on e-commerce fulfillment for retail brick-and-mortar stores. And the company launched its first unmanned iPickup Point for PUDO (Pick Up Drop Off) Access Points with UPS this year in the UK and is now expanding into the EU, starting with a large retailer in France in the fourth quarter of 2023.
iPickup can transform how organizations manage product and package fulfillment by empowering operations with less staff, improving customer experiences with minimal to no wait times, and allowing better use of space within stores. The iPickup platform also provides transformational service capabilities for retailers by combining BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup In Store), BORIS (Buy Online Return In Store), and even shipping. This is a one stop shop solution for retailers that promises to solve their eCommerce fulfillment challenges while helping drive more foot traffic into the stores with about over 40% upsell rates.
These solutions also drive in a new age of product and package fulfillment by outsourcing the labor to the customer, saving organizations cost,s and improving the space required for fulfillment operations. And the technologies built into this new platform represent more than ten years of development and feature some of the most advanced tracking techniques ever created.
KEY QUOTES:
“When we started on this journey, most people scoffed at the notion of letting a computer manage and secure package deliveries vs. a human or a locker. Today, after over 2 million successful self-serve package transactions without theft, we have proven this new AI-based approach works better than the old way of managing deliveries. Position Imaging has proven this new approach is extremely effective with a clear market fit and we are now ready to expand quickly. We are thrilled to work with the teams at Ghost Tree and Aon to help this expansion and establish our new platforms as the premium solutions for eCommerce fulfillment around the world.”
— Ned Hill, CEO of Position Imaging
“We recognized Position Imaging’s technical advantages over existing solutions and the company’s expansive patent portfolio as unique and valuable. We are pleased to support the company as it introduces solutions that ease the burden of eCommerce fulfillment for landlords and storeowners and are excited to provide the capital to support the company’s retail growth and geographical expansion.”
— David Byrne, Managing Director, Ghost Tree Partners
“Innovation drives growth, and intellectual property can be the valuable asset created from that innovation. We are excited to support innovative companies with intellectual property portfolios like Position Imaging to help them unlock the potential value of those IP assets and pursue growth independent of equity market volatility.”
— Lewis Lee, CEO, IP Solutions at Aon, a global professional services firm that facilitated the transaction through valuation and brokering services
