Zippin’s Series B Fundraise and an Inflection Point for Frictionless Checkout
By: Smriti Jayaraman, Principal at Evolv Ventures
Late this summer we were thrilled to participate in Zippin’s Series B fundraise which, in addition to bringing new partners and growth-driving capital to the table, heralded a host of exciting milestones for the business. It has been nearly two years since we led Zippin’s Series A, and we could not be more proud of the journey to this point. The business has done a fantastic job of riding the pandemic wave (both the good and bad), up-leveling their senior team, and hitting a true inflection point in their live store market momentum — all with some of the most exciting announcements still ahead.
The 18-month pandemic journey
In March of 2020, we had a moment of reckoning as we realized what the emerging world order could mean for our portfolio companies. On one hand, the suddenly skyrocketing demand for quick and contactless shopping, coupled with more operational and inventory management complexity than ever before felt like it had accelerated the need for intelligent, AI-driven retail by 10+ years. On the other hand, retailers and grocers were overwhelmed, and extra careful about investment decisions. Zippin ultimately rose to the challenge, first and foremost by amplifying their stated vision of “becoming the operating system for the automated store of the future”, fully embracing the challenges and opportunities the pandemic represented. They were able to push the technology, the deployment model, and the economics even further to make their solution not just attractive to but in many cases essential to the new retail environment.
The leadership team 2.0
We believe Zippin’s thoughtfulness with regards to critical talent has been instrumental in these last two years. While Zippin’s technical team has always been market-leading, the business recognized that segment leadership meant building a business development engine that was equally top of class, able to internalize the nuanced challenges of on-the-ground retail. CEO Krishna Motukuri and team worked hard to define and find these roles, ultimately bringing in a fantastic BD leader with experience in the exact channels Zippin is focused. The business also enhanced leadership in finance and systems while steadily and thoughtfully growing its engineering team.
The live-store hockey stick
2021 has seen Zippin truly translate a solid technical and operational engine into live stores like never before, kicking off what we believe is the true market momentum inflection point. Zippin has now signed over 50 stores, including several multi-store deals, C-suite engagements with both food service providers and marquis brands, as well as several high profile launches in locations like the US Open, Barclay’s Center and Gillette stadium. This is in no small part due to the intense focus on delivering 99.9%+ accuracy using their multi-modal technology approach that is unique in its ability to optimize for tricky yet common retail scenarios including high shopper density, complex and often unbranded product selection, and variable traffic. As a result, live Zippin-powered stores have seen record-breaking sales and levels of consumer satisfaction as compared to their traditional counterparts. We believe Zippin’s exponential growth will continue to accelerate as their AI trains on the rich datasets provided by these challenging environments, complemented by continuous improvements in already industry-leading deployment times, setup costs, and operational sophistication.
