Standard Cognition became the first "unicorn" in the field of cashierless stores

Fort Ross Ventures, founded by former Sberbank IT director Viktor Orlovsky, has invested $10 million in Standard Cognition, an American developer of retail automation systems. With all of the round's investments, the startup's value exceeded $1 billion, making it the first "unicorn" in the field of checkout stores.

Fort Ross Ventures invested $10 million in Standard Cognition, the total round size is $150 million, the fund's press service reported. The deal involved SoftBank Vision Fund 2, CRV, EQT Ventures, TI Platform Management and SK Networks.

The investment will enable Standard Cognition to expand its reach and equip more than 50,000 cashier-free stores over the next five years. The company's technology is already being used by Alimentation Couche-Tard, Inc. (the parent company of the global convenience store brand Circle K) and the Compass Group.

• Fort Ross Ventures is a management company focusing on investments in startups in the US, Israel and Russia in areas such as fintech, AI, cloud services, cybersecurity, marketplaces and others. Fort Ross Ventures manages four funds worth $345 million.
• Standard Cognition was founded in 2017 and uses a combination of cameras, AI and computer vision to create cashier-free stores. The buyer logs in at the entrance using a smartphone, after which he can take the necessary products from the shelves. The smart system automatically determines the shopping list and withdraws the required amount from the client's card. According to the company, the technology does not deal with facial recognition and allows buyers to remain anonymous.

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Recently, companies in more and more exotic industries have become “unicorns”. The Bell talked about a startup that treats depression with the active substance of hallucinogenic mushrooms, with a valuation of $2 billion.