Trax Secures $640 Million Funding Round Led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and BlackRock to Transform Retail Through Digital Technologies
Trax , a leading computer vision company transforming brick-and-mortar retail, has secured $640 million in a Series E financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 21 and technology-focused funds managed by existing investor BlackRock, Inc.
Trax, a leading computer vision company transforming brick-and-mortar retail, has secured $640 million in a Series E financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 21 and technology-focused funds managed by existing investor BlackRock, Inc. This round of primary and secondary capital also saw participation from new investors including OMERS, one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension plans, and Sony Innovation Fund by IGV2.
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Joel Bar-El, Justin Behar, Dror Feldheim (Photo: Business Wire)
Trax’s cloud platform is accelerating the digital transformation of consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies and grocery retailers by providing granular visibility of rapidly changing store conditions. Trax solutions enable users to make timely, data-driven decisions and implement immediate corrective actions. As a result, brands and retailers are accelerating growth, reducing costs, and driving awareness and purchase intent. Powered by its proprietary computer vision, advanced Internet of things hardware, on-demand workforce, and shopper solutions, Trax empowers its customers to provide the best shopping experiences imaginable.
“We are witnessing the retail industry adopt digital technologies at an unprecedented pace and scale,” said Joel Bar-El, executive chairman and co-founder of Trax. “Despite the turbulence of 2020, we made tremendous strides in our business because of the hard work, dedication and team spirit at Trax. Our many solutions address the complex needs of CPG brands and retailers as they rapidly adjust to shifts in consumer behavior. This funding puts Trax confidently at the forefront of the future of retail, where the physical and digital combine in new ways to bring meaningful experiences to shoppers.”
“Through its innovative AI platform and image recognition technologies, we believe Trax is optimizing retail stores by enabling CPG brands and retailers to execute better inventory strategies using data and analytics,” said Chris Lee, director at SoftBank Investment Advisers. “We are excited to partner with the Trax team to help expand their product offerings and enter new markets.”
“Trax has been building its sophisticated, AI-powered, retail cloud platform for more than a decade,” said Justin Behar, CEO of Trax. “We began our journey by creating novel computer vision solutions for retail and have since broadened our capabilities to serve the evolving needs of the modern retail ecosystem. Through this significant investment from SoftBank, BlackRock and others, we will invest in our team, extend our market leadership, continue to scale our retailer business, and drive the next stages of long-term growth and innovation.”
Since its founding in 2010, Trax has pioneered a host of technological advances for the industry. In the past year, Trax has launched a suite of autonomous shelf monitoring solutions and an AI-driven, enterprise-level dynamic merchandising service to help brands and retailers keep products on shelves with the assistance of Trax Flexforce, an on-demand crowd marketplace.
J.P. Morgan acted as a placement agent to Trax on this investment round.
For more information about Trax’s retail platform, visit www.traxretail.com.
About Trax
Trax’s mission is to enable brands and retailers to harness the power of digital technologies to produce the best shopping experiences imaginable. Trax’s retail platform allows customers to understand what is happening on shelf, in every store, all the time so they can focus on what they do best – delighting shoppers. Many of the world’s top CPG companies and retailers use Trax’s dynamic merchandising, in-store execution, shopper engagement, market measurement, analytics, and shelf monitoring solutions at scale to drive positive shopper experiences and unlock revenue opportunities at all points of sale. As pioneers in computer vision, Trax continues to lead the industry in innovation and excellence through development of advanced technologies and autonomous data collection methods. Trax is a global company with hubs in the United States, Singapore and Israel, serving customers in more than 90 countries worldwide.
1 As of the date of this press release, SoftBank Group Corp. has made capital contributions to allow investments by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 ("SVF 2") in certain portfolio companies. The information included herein is made for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy limited partnership interests in any fund, including SVF 2. SVF 2 has yet to have an external close, and any potential third-party investors shall receive additional information related to any SVF 2 investments prior to closing.
2 Innovation Growth Ventures Co., Ltd. (IGV) is managed by Sony Innovation Fund and Daiwa Capital Holdings
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