Qualcomm Ventures backs autonomous shopping startup AiFi
US-based autonomous store technology venture, AiFi, has bagged additional funding from Qualcomm Ventures, existing investors Cervin Ventures and TransLink Capital, and newbie Plum Alley.
This brings its total funding amount to $30 million.
“As intelligence continues to move from the cloud to the wireless edge and demand for contactless shopping grows, we are excited to be investing in AiFi,” says Carlos Kokron, VP Qualcomm Technologies and Managing Director, Americas at Qualcomm Ventures.
“We were very impressed with AiFi’s innovative edge computing solutions and look forward to their technology helping accelerate the deployment of 5G.”
AiFi is currently building out new and retrofitted autonomous stores.
With 330 slated to open in 2021, it has partnerships with five of the top 10 US grocery chains, three of the top six European chains, and with a number one store chain in Australia. A range of locations in California and Texas are expected to open by the end of the year.
“We are incredibly excited for Qualcomm Ventures’ investment to accelerate the deployment of AiFi-powered autonomous stores. We will be focusing on building out our OASIS platform so implementations will be even faster,” says Steve Gu, Co-founder, and CEO, AiFi.
“With this new funding, we will continue to develop our technology so stores around the world will get smarter and more efficient, making in-store shopping easier, more profitable and safer than ever before.”