Standard Cognition is an autonomous checkout company that announced it has raised $40 million in Series A funding recently. Using cameras on the ceiling and artificial intelligence, Standard Cognition’s technology solutions enable consumers to shop without having to stop to check out.
This round of funding was led by Initialized Capital. CRV and Y Combinator also participated in this round along with new investor including Draper Associates. Standard Cognition has now raised more than $51 million thus far. With this round of funding, Standard Cognition will be building its team and expand globally.
Initialized Capital co-founder and managing partner Garry Tan and CRV general partner Devdutt Yellurkar are joining Standard Cognition’s board of directors in conjunction with the funding. Covington & Burling LLP served as Standard Cognition’s outside counsel for this transaction.
“In 2019, consumers will start to see autonomous checkout deployed in their favorite stores, and by 2025, it will be common,” said Standard Cognition co-founder and CEO Jordan Fisher. “We’re seeing in our San Francisco store that shoppers love the convenience, and retailers love the accuracy, cost savings and customer service advantages. We can’t wait to execute on this next stage of Standard’s growth.”
The technology that Standard Cognition is similar to what Amazon Go shoppers may have noticed. However, Standard’s platform is available for any retailers in order to improve customer experiences and reduce costs for brick-and-mortar locations.
In the past several months, Standard Cognition signed its first four retail customers across North America, Asia, and Europe. Standard Cognition also received a patent for a critical component of its technology and the company opened its first cashier-less store in San Francisco.
“The Standard team has been an execution machine, meeting or exceeding every goal and working tirelessly to get in front of nearly every major retailer on the globe,” added Tan. “They have huge technology advantages that are readily apparent to retail clients, and are years ahead of other startups in this space – we think Standard is the most exciting play right now in AI or retail tech.”
There are several advantages about Standard Cognition’s system including privacy (no biometric information is collected), scalability (lightweight installation without sensors being needed on shelves), flexibility (supports flash sales and dynamic retail environments), and insights (anonymized shopper analytics).
