News

Instacart acquires Caper AI, a smart cart and instant checkout startup, for $350M, as it moves deeper into physical retail tech

October 19, 2021

Instacart made its name by providing a way for consumers to bypass shopping in stores in person, by ordering items online and getting them delivered to their homes — a business that positively boomed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. But with physical stores still looming large in the world of groceries, Instacart also wants to play a role there, too. Today, the company announced that it is acquiring Caper AI, a startup that builds smart cart and cashier-less checkout technology that uses computer vision and other techniques to detect items and ring them up for shoppers. TechCrunch

Smart-cart startup Caper is helping retailers compete with Amazon by digitizing the in-person shopping experience

February 10, 2021

In 2016, Amazon put the grocery industry on notice with their camera- and sensor-filled Amazon Go stores (it now has 27 locations). Gao said Caper developed its smart carts to help grocery stores, a low-margin business, deploy automated checkout without the complete overhaul Amazon Go required. Business Insider