Standard Cognition Raises $40 Million in Series A Funding to Expand Autonomous Checkout Footprint Worldwide

Round led by Initialized Capital, with continued participation from CRV and new investors including Draper Associates

Standard Cognition, which provides the most flexible AI-powered autonomous checkout solutions for brick & mortar retailers, announced that it has raised $40 Million in Series A funding. The round was led by Initialized Capital, with continued participation from CRV and Y Combinator, and new investors including Draper Associates. This financing round brings the total amount raised to date by Standard to more than $51M, and will enable the company to expand its team and accelerate its ongoing global expansion as it rolls out its customers’ initial autonomous checkout-enabled stores.

Garry Tan, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Initialized Capital, and Devdutt Yellurkar, General Partner at CRV (which led Standard’s previous funding round), have both joined Standard’s board. Standard’s outside counsel for the transaction was Covington & Burling LLP.

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Standard’s artificial intelligence-based system lets consumers shop and pay without scanning or stopping to check out. An alternative to Amazon Go, Standard’s platform is available to any retailer, radically improving the customer experience, reducing costs and opening new revenue streams for retailers.

In recent months, Standard has:

• Signed on its first four retail customers (spanning Asia, North America and Europe);
• Obtained a patent for a critical component of its technology; and
• Opened San Francisco’s first public cashierless store, which has been a busy site for Standard’s customers and prospects.

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“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,” said Garry Tan, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Initialized Capital. “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.”

“In 2019, consumers will start to see autonomous checkout deployed in their favorite stores, and by 2025, it will be common,” said Jordan Fisher, Co-founder and CEO of Standard Cognition. “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.”

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Standard’s system offers several benefits over other autonomous checkout platforms:

• Privacy – No biometric information is collected from customers, including no facial recognition
• Scalable – Lightweight installation requiring only overhead cameras – no shelf or item sensors
• Seamless Experience – No checkout, no lines
• Flexible – Allows for dynamic retail environments and flash sales
• Insight – Anonymized shopper analytics for the store

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