Portugal news - Portuguese retail tech startup Sensei just raised 15 million euros in a series A financing round.
Portuguese tech startup Sensei is changing the way the world shops through custom retail experiences that combine AI, computer vision, and machine learning to build a full-service system that is scalable across multiple formats. The cutting-edge technology will revolutionize the way people shop, giving rise to smart stores where scanning products and standing in lines are things of the past.
Founded in 2017 by Vasco Portugal, Joana Rafael, Nuno Moutinho and Paulo Carreira, the Portuguese retail tech startup provides 360-degree perspectives that detect empty shelves, see the space customers move through in the store, register whether the products on display capture their attention, count the flow of people entering and leaving the store, and check whether interactions result in purchases.
The total investment raised by Portuguese startup Sensei reaches 21 million euros, following this new series A financing round that was led by the Portuguese venture capital firm BlueCrow Capital, with the participation of Lince Capital, Explorer Investments, Arcor group, and Kamay Ventures that belongs to the Coca-Cola company. Moreover, former Sensei investors Techstars Ventures and Metro AG increased their investment, while business angels Diogo Mónica, who is the chairperson of the unicorn Anchorage Digital, and João Graça, who is the founder of Unbabel also invested in the tech startup.
The new investment will enable Sensei to create another thousand autonomous points of sale and to enter other countries in central and northern Europe by 2026. In Portugal, Sensei collaborates with Continente for the country's first cashierless minimarket, while internationally, it already operates in Spain, France, Italy and Brazil.
Retail is one of the sectors where AI has the greatest opportunities for transformation and tech startup Sensei has real potential to lead the autonomous retail revolution worldwide.