Israeli Retail Data Firm Trax Raises $640M Series E Funding Round

Israeli startup Trax, a computer vision-based firm transforming retail, has secured a $640 million Series E funding round, the company announced on Wednesday.

The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 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 IGV.

Founded in 2010 by Dror Feldheim and Joel Bar-El, Trax uses computer vision to enable brands and retailers to harness the power of digital technologies to produce the best shopping experiences. The company’s retail platform allows customers to understand what is happening in every store.

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.

Many of the world’s top companies that offer consumer packaged goods (CPG) use Trax’s merchandising, in-store execution, shopping engagement, market measurement, analytics, and shelf monitoring solutions at scale to drive positive shopper experiences and unlock revenue opportunities at all points of sale.

Trax is a global company with hubs in the United States, Singapore and Israel, serving customers in more than 90 countries worldwide.

“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.”

Chris Lee, director of SoftBank Investment Advisers says it is Trax’s “innovative AI platform and image recognition technologies” as well as the company’s optimization of retail stores through data and analytics that makes them “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.”