Despite a slow roll-out of autonomous checkout solutions and recent setbacks for Amazon’s cashierless stores, current tailwinds and consolidations could set the industry back on track.
Autonomous checkout solutions have raised over $900M in total funding based on promises of reducing shrinkage and labor costs for slim-margined industries.
However, these solutions — which help shoppers quickly checkout without scanning individual items — have had a slower rollout than expected due to challenges with hardware implementation, consumer acceptance, and capital costs.
Even Amazon, an early-mover in the space, has closed a number of its autonomous checkout stores this year. (It still intends to sell the tech as a white-label service.)
In this brief, we use CB Insights data to analyze the market for autonomous checkout companies and assess where the space might go. We look at the following data points in the space:
- Total funding
- Deal stages
- Top-funded companies
- Business relationships
Total funding
There are 26 companies offering autonomous checkout solutions, with approaches that vary from computer vision to smart shopping carts.
Since 2019, the space has raised $781M across 38 deals. However, no rounds have been raised in 2023 so far.
