AI retail technology startup ScanWatch attracted €0.5M in investments, with technology company Agmis and smart retail security solutions provider Neto Baltic leading the round. ScanWatch reduces the time spent at self-service checkout counters. The product automatically identifies scanned fruit, vegetables, and other unpackaged goods, helping retailers to mitigate checkout fraud, as well as reduce unintentional scanning errors.
“More than 60% of shopping baskets include at least one unpacked item. Selecting fruit or vegetables from the self-checkout counter menu creates additional friction in the checkout experience, also increasing checkout time, especially if scanning a few unpackaged items per checkout”, – noted ScanWatch managing partner Evaldas Budvilaitis.
ScanWatch also compares visual images of scanned products with corresponding barcode and product image database, mitigating the risk of intentional product mislabeling.
According to research, more than 1% of retail revenue is lost due to checkout fraud or scanning errors, totaling more than 300 billion US dollars per year.
“ScanWatch trials in largest Baltic grocery retail chains indicated that in 0.92-0.95% of all self-checkout scans the product was not identified correctly. By harnessing computer vision, we can significantly reduce these retailer losses”, – added E. Budvilaitis.
ScanWatch utilizes cameras installed in the self-checkout area to identify scanned products. ScanWatch is currently compatible with 80% of self-checkout hardware currently available on the market.
