EQT Ventures heads up major Standard Cognition funding round

Autonomous checkout startup Standard Cognition has closed a $35 million Series B round of financing lead by EQT Ventures with participation from Initialized Capital, CRV and Y Combinator.

This brings its total funding to date to more than $86 million and its post-money valuation to $535 million. The company says it will “continue to focus on making its early customers in the US and Japan successful while growing the team and expanding both domestically and internationally”.

It opened its first autonomous checkout store in San Francisco during August 2018 and has signed several retail customers. It claims that it is currently deploying for two in multiple locations, with scheduled go-live dates in Q3 and Q4 of this year.

Jordan Fisher, Co-founder and CEO, comments: “We really hit it off with the EQT Ventures team, and we’re incredibly excited to have them onboard as we enter our next stage of growth. Standard’s initial customer implementations are moving along quickly, and in the coming months we’ll be able to reveal more detail about our work with our global retailers. Feedback from retailers is that our light footprint, low hardware costs and fast installation are the main reasons why they are selecting us.”

“Traditional bricks and mortar retailers are caught in a perfect storm. From the encroachment of behemoths like Amazon into every inch of the market to changing consumer attitudes, as busy people demand an ever more efficient shopping experience, margins are being squeezed like never before,” says Alastair Mitchell, Partner and Investment Advisor EQT Ventures.

“The talented and driven Standard Cognition team have worked quickly to build a product that allows physical retailers, of all sizes, to tackle these challenges. A strong track record, super-smart technology and bold ambitions for future expansion makes it an exciting investment for us, especially as we look to push forward with our ambition to help US companies break into Europe.”