No More Queues: Investing in the Future of Retail with AiFi
A few weeks ago in Austin, I listened as Ying Zheng, AiFi’s co-founder, asked a room of founders and investors, “Who likes waiting in line?” The answer was no one.
The global retail market is undergoing a major metamorphosis, with industry trends converging on the point of technological innovation and adoption. It’s a space we at Plum Alley have been watching for a number of years, and we were waiting for a company to emerge that could demonstrate what shopping will look like in the future with deep technical differentiation. AiFi’s secret sauce, unlike other players, is their computer vision — which allows for fast scalability with retail customers.
At Plum Alley, we look to make investments in technology that “future-proof” legacy industries with technological disruption that goes beyond being technology-enabled solutions. AiFi is the opportunity that helps retail customers future-proof a gigantic legacy industry into creating more efficiency, better economics, and most importantly superior worker and customer experience. AiFi’s autonomous retail technology provides a frictionless, no checkout, “wow” experience for the shoppers while supporting retail customers with their operations.
The global traditional retail sales market represents an enormous $16T segment that is ripe for disruption. The technological innovation in the traditional brick and mortar retail industry has been stagnant for a number of years, and with increased competition from digital natives, tech-enabled innovation has become critical to improving the long-term viability of the business.
Competition from e-commerce, shifting consumer preferences, increases in the costs of doing business, and pandemic-related considerations have all contributed to decreasing margins across retail. This has spurred retailers to invest more in efficiencies across brick and mortar retail and the supply chain, and technologies that increase profitability in each location.
Enter AiFi:
AiFi announced the raise in March of their $65 million Series B round with participation from their existing retail partners that include Aldi, Zabka, Carrefour, Rewe, Verizon Ventures, United Airlines, and others. Plum Alley Investments participated in AiFi’s Series A round in 2019 and was also able to participate in this unique opportunity alongside the world’s largest retailers participating as strategic investment towards growth.
AiFi’s technology is based on advanced computer vision powered by a specially designed and trained AI system for product recognition and shopper tracking. The platform can accommodate both fully autonomous and hybrid checkout systems, giving retailers great flexibility to find the solution that works best for their needs. This flexibility also provides the option for 24/7 operations, increasing profitability from a given location.
It’s SIMPLE:
Five reasons why we think AiFi is uniquely positioned to disrupt the traditional retail experience
a. Economic Pressure: As online shopping continues to grow, brick and mortar retailers are being forced to rapidly modernize to compete with the ease and convenience of online shopping. It is not an easy task to rival a button click! From efforts to blend the physical world with the virtual using AR mirrors, applying AI, and planogram designs to maximize the efficiency and basket value of each customer’s trip, retailers are adopting new technology at breakneck speed. Through a variety of technologies including cameras and smart sensor-equipped shelves, new and legacy companies are attempting to solve one of the most time consuming aspects of in-person shopping, checking out. However, they present scaling challenges. AiFi’s software focused approach allows for operational scalability with significantly reduced economics and immediate ROI to retailers.
b. Solving the Problem: Current mainstream retail technology adoption has been focused around two core areas:
- ‘Self-checkout’ terminals — customers scan their own items to pay
- Store technology — driven by smart shelves and camera
These existing technologies are cumbersome, and create bottlenecks in retail transformation. AiFi is disrupting the retail industry with a leading AI and computer vision platform enabling autonomous operations that eliminates these roadblocks. The convenience of autonomous retail shopping creates a frictionless experience for both the retailer and the shopper. Post-pandemic safety considerations also continue to expedite the retail industry’s rapid adoption of contactless technology towards automation. AiFi is leading this metamorphosis in the retail industry with its world-class technology, experienced team, and a global customer base.
c. Scaling Up: Since launching the initial Nanostore product, AiFi has deployed over 65+ operating automated retail stores with doubling of that this year across the global markets. AiFi has secured a customer base of some of the largest retailers in the world. With a global footprint spanning the U.S., EU, Asia and Australia. AiFi has signed more than 20 global customers, who represent more than 65,000 retail locations worldwide, with a combined revenue of $500B each year. We’re ready for a new era of retail.
d. Backing founders who know how to get it done: When founders Steve Gu and Ying Zheng launched AiFi in California back in 2016, they already knew how world-changing AI could be. With PhDs in computer science and contributions to some of the most well-known Apple and Google technology, they set out on a new mission — to make AI as accessible as WiFi by bringing it to an industry that impacts people’s lives every day.
AiFi Co-Founders Ying Zheng, PhD, and Steve Gu, PhD, began their professional careers at leading technology companies like Apple and Google, where they led teams dedicated to researching and applying AI, computer vision, and sensor technology towards applications like Google Glass and Apple’s Magic Trackpad. Their experience yields a hands-on appreciation for the power of AI systems and their applications in real world scenarios. They launched AiFi with the goal of ‘making AI as common as WiFI.’ They now have a team of 90+ and have established AiFi as an industry leader in autonomous retail technology.
e. Flexible Technology for Flexible Solutions: The backbone of AiFi’s technology is supported by a state-of-the-art, proprietary, and purpose-built training module that is the first in the world designed specifically for training AI for autonomous retail solutions. At its most basic, the system allows AiFi to simulate complete store environments, from the products themselves to shelf layouts, customer tracking and shopping activity recognition.
A key benefit to AiFi’s autonomous checkout platform is that they can accommodate a wide variety of store types and operational models. The technology provides retailers a plug-and-play solution for existing stores without a need for any retrofits or lengthy transformations, meaning it can also be incorporated into new store plans, providing a seamless retail experience from day one. Finally, AiFi can also now deploy a fully assembled and autonomous store in any location, called Nanostores. Successful deployments of these Nanostores have been completed at music festivals, stadiums, and travel hubs. Watch the deployment of AiFi’s nanostore in partnership with Verizon at Governor’s Ball here.
Over the past three years, AiFi has increased the square footage their technology can service, growing from the Nanostore to 10,000 sq.ft. supermarket applications, deploying the largest computer vision-only store in the world in partnership with Aldi. This is larger than any competitors, including Amazon Go, which has only deployed in specially designed and purpose-built storefronts.
To Plum Alley, this scalable technological advantage is what allows AiFi to deploy 10x faster than alternatives, within 30 days of initiation. This rapid deployment not only allows AiFi to scale their footprint much faster and more efficiently, but retailers also don’t have to waste time and store hours to retrofit and remodel.
In retail, every minute counts.
We look forward to a future of no queues!
