Israeli Retail Firm Trax Image Recognition Raises $125M

July 2, 2018 | Israeli inventory management startup Trax Image Recognition have announced they have raised $125 million in a funding round, giving the company a valuation of $850 million, according to a Bloomberg report. The round was led large Chinese investment fund Boyu Capital, and UK media company DC Thompson. The company, which is based in Singapore, but has its development center in Tel Aviv, has raised $235 million to date.

Bloomberg says this “advances plans for an initial public offering” which could take place in the next 18 to 24 months. The company is already in talks with both Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, Trax’s CEO Joel Bar-El said in an interview.

Considered to be one of the largest and most advanced Israeli startups in the retail industry, according to Israeli business daily The Marker, Trax wants to streamline the operation of physical store, by providing a cutting-edge computer vision platform to process photos taken in a store by cameras and smartphones, and delivers data and insights within minutes. It combines image recognition, machine learning, and data collection to build retail database and analytics products. All the information is processed in the cloud and Trax sends its insights to retailers and global packaged good companies like Coca-Cola Co. Trax was founded in 2010 by Bar-El and Dror Feldheim. It has 175 clients in 50 countries.