Trigo Creates a Friction-free Shopping Solution and Queues in Front of the Cashier When Paying

JAKARTA – Israeli technology company Trigo announced on Wednesday, October 26 that it is raising a $100 million investment in a private funding round to increase the deployment of its technology that allows customers to shop without having to queue at store checkouts.

This investment is led by Singapore-based investor companies, Temasek and 83North. They are joined by new strategic investor SAP SE, who will also help commercialize Trigo's solutions and existing investors, Hetz Ventures, Red Dot Capital Partners, Vertex Ventures, Viola, and supermarket giant REWE Group.

Trigo says its technology transforms existing supermarkets into fully autonomous digital stores through the use of ceiling-mounted cameras. The camera is capable of tracking customer movement and product selection, to make shopping “frictionless”. Payments and receipts are also handled digitally.

In this supermarket there is also no need for a cashier to handle payments. Buyers can directly make payments for groceries with digital transactions.

“It took several years to develop the first store, open the first store, and we decided that our strategy would be to focus on supermarkets,” said Trigo CEO Michael Gabay, who founded Trigo four years ago.

"If you go to a small convenience store in the US, with your Coke and snacks, then the need for that product is less than in the supermarket," Gabay added, as quoted by Bloomberg.

Trigo also said it would use the new funds to further expand the technology into the United States and Europe, while developing a suite of inventory management applications.

Trigo noted its technology is being used by Tesco PLC in the UK, ALDI in the Netherlands, Wakefern in the United States and Netto and REWE in Germany.

In the race to automate checkout at convenience stores, Amazon.com Inc. likely to lead. Twenty-six new Amazon Fresh grocery stores in the US, which typically have more than 20.000 square feet of shopping space, are now equipped with the company's Just Walk Out technology.

Amazon is also trying to sell camera systems and rack sensors to other retailers, such as Starbucks Corp., J Sainsbury PLC and some airport and stadium concession operators are its customers.