Trax Retail

Trax is a technology company headquartered in Singapore, with offices throughout the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America. Founded in 2010 by Joel Bar-El and Dror Feldheim, Trax has more than 150 customers in the retail and FMCG industries, including beverage company Coca-Cola[1] and brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev. Customers use the company’s computer vision technology to collect, measure, and analyze what’s happening on physical store shelves. Trax’s services are available in 45 markets.

Trax
Website Screenshot
Type of businessPrivate
Founded2010 (2010)
HeadquartersSingapore
Area servedWorldwide
CEOJustin Behar
Key peopleJoel Bar-El (Founder and Executive Chairman), Dror Feldheim (Founder and President)
IndustrySoftware for Retail & CPG
URLtraxretail.com
Current statusActive

Trax's development center opened in July 2012 in Tel Aviv.[2] In 2015, the company opened its first two regional offices: London in January and São Paulo, Brazil, in April. In March 2016, Trax established its US headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The company opened two more regional offices in Shanghai and Mexico City in June and September 2016, respectively.

Funding

Trax closed its first round of funding (seed round) for US$1.1 million in June 2011. In Aug 2013 it raised US$6.6 million in Series A financing, and US$15.7 million in February 2014 and US$15 million[3] in December 2014 as part of its Series B round. In June 2016 and February 2017 the company raised US$40 million[4] and US$19.5 million[5] respectively as part of its Series C round, led by Broad Peak Investments. In July 2019, it raised $100 million in a series D round led by Chinese alternative asset manager Hopu Investments.[6] In April 2021, it raised $650 million in a series E round led by SoftBank Vision Fund and BlackRock.[7]

Organizational changes

Trax announced key organizational changes in February 2021. Justin Behar is now the Chief Executive Officer. Behar joined Trax in 2018 as part of Trax’s acquisition of Quri, a company he founded.[8]

Trax co-founders Joel Bar-El and Dror Feldheim are appointed Executive Chairman and President respectively. Bar-El heads efforts on corporate strategy, long-term vision and innovation and shareholder value creation. Feldheim leads new growth initiatives, global partnerships/alliances and M&A.

Mergers and acquisitions

Trax has made 7 acquisitions since its inception:

On July 12, 2017, Trax announced that it had acquired Nielsen Store Observations (NSO) project-based services in the US from Nielsen Corporation.[9]

On January 18, 2018, Trax announced that it had acquired US-based Quri, a provider of crowdsourced data on in-store conditions for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry.[10]

In June 2019, Trax announced its acquisition of LenzTech, a Chinese-based company providing artificial intelligence (AI), crowdsourcing services, and Big Data analysis to the retail market.[11]

In July 2019, Trax announced the acquisition of Shopkick, a US-based company whose shopping app for smartphones and tablets allows users to earn rewards for their online and in-store shopping activities.[12]

Partnerships

In January 2019, Trax announced a partnership with Google Cloud Platform.[13] Using Google Cloud Platform, Trax aims to deliver its Retail Watch image recognition product and machine learning capability to retailers to provide real-time shelf insights, such as out-of-stock products.

Products and services

Trax offers Computer Vision-led products and services to CPG manufacturers and retailers. Its products and services fall into several categories: In-store execution, space planning, market measurement & strategy, and store management.[14]

Technology

Trax’s computer vision technology uses artificial intelligence, fine-grained image recognition, and machine learning engines to convert store images into shelf insights.[15] The technology can recognise products that are similar or identical, such as branded drinks or shampoo bottles but can also differentiate between them based on variety and size.

Trax piloted its machine learning algorithms with initial customers, allowing its algorithm to learn about different products. As the company processes more images, the better the technology gets at recognizing the same products in different shapes and sizes.[16]

References
  1. O'Donoghue, Jasmine (November 10, 2014). "Three most innovative manufacturers named". FOOD Magazine. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
  2. Chng, Grace (September 3, 2015). "The 'eyes' that help a store track its goods". The Straits Times. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  3. Shahi, Twishy (December 16, 2014). "Singapore's Trax Image Recognition raises US$15M funding". e27.
  4. Trax Press Release (June 8, 2016). "Trax Image Recognition raises $40mln in funding fund". Reuters.
  5. Trax Press Release (February 8, 2017). "Trax Image Recognition Raises $$19.5M in Funding".
  6. Cordon, Miguel (July 22, 2019). "Retail tech startup Trax banks $100m in series D round". Tech in Asia.
  7. Shu, Catherine (April 7, 2021). "Singapore-based retail analytics company Trax raises $640M Series E led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and BlackRock". TechCrunch.
  8. "Trax Announces Key Organizational Changes as a Part of its 2025 Growth Plan". Trax Retail. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  9. "Advanced Alliance Between Nielsen And Trax Brings New Shelf Insight Tools To U.S. Brands". www.nasdaq.com. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  10. Orbach, Meir (2018-01-18). "Image Retail Analytics Company Trax Buys Retail Intelligence Startup Quri". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  11. "US-based Trax and LenzTech team up to digitise offline retail". Verdict Retail. 2019-06-03. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  12. "Dentons UKMEA LLP". Financial Times. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  13. "Trax Case Study". Google Cloud. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  14. "Products". Trax Retail. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  15. Trax. "Trax Acquires Leading European Provider of Image Recognition for Retail Execution Planorama". www.prnewswire.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  16. hermes (2015-09-03). "The 'eyes' that help a store track its goods". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
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