Grocery Store Of The Future: 65 Startups Reimagining Shelf Stocking, Product Promotion, Shopper Tracking, And More

The startups in this infographic have raised nearly $1.5B to optimize grocery store operations with AI, virtual reality and more.

While grocers have traditionally not been as affected by the migration to e-commerce as other retailers, e-commerce has now begun to hit the grocery space. As Amazon — the leading threat in nearly every retail industry— pushes more heavily into grocery, brick-and-mortar grocery stores will continue to face increased pressure to optimize every inch of their physical stores.

Dozens of startups aiming to help grocery businesses improve their brick-and-mortar operations have raised funding. These startups offer products ranging from sensors to track shopper routes throughout the store, to virtual reality to design more attractive product displays.e

The infographic below highlights 65 startups that focus on serving grocery businesses. We previously looked at startups serving brick-and-mortar retailers here and startups seeking to optimize restaurant operations here. All startups included in this post have a notable use case within the food & grocery industry, although many work with other types of brick-and-mortar retailers as well.

See the infographic, category descriptions, and full startup list below. All startups on the map are private companies and have raised investment since 2013.

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Category breakdown

Real-time shelf monitoring - These startups help food and CPG brands monitor their products in stores — either through AI-powered visual monitoring or via field check teams — to ensure their products are properly displayed, visually monitor product promotions, and more.

Store robots & chatbots - These startups power robots for use in stores, to greet customers and/or track and move inventory.

Augmented/virtual reality tools - These startups use augmented and virtual reality to help brands and retailers design and refine in-store promotional displays before launching them. InContext raised $40M and has a long client list including Coca-Cola, AB InBev, Kellogg’s, and Walgreens. Augment has raised $5M and has worked with Nestle, Coca-Cola and others.

Interactive displays - These startups provide digital, interactive screens to stores to help boost customer engagement in the aisles.

Digital labels - These startups let shoppers scan products with their mobile phones to see additional product information.

Music management - These startups help businesses manage their in-store music playlists.

Shopper feedback - Startups including Wyzerr, TruRating, and Ecrebo help businesses solicit reviews and satisfaction ratings from customers at the point of sale.

Smarter receipts - These startups help stores provide digital receipts and receipts with personalized rewards to shoppers in stores.

Beacons & location tracking - Startups such as Euclid Analytics ($43.6M in disclosed funding), RetailNext ($189M), and Swirl Networks ($32M) use beacons, sensors, and Wi-Fi signals from phones to track shoppers throughout the store and provide grocery stores with insights on foot traffic and individual shoppers. Some also provide proximity marketing tools. These startups offer a similar use case as the In-Store Shopper Insights category (noted below). However, this category is more focused on location-based tech and tends to cater to retailers, rather than brands.

Store management - These startups provide broad software platforms for store management, integrating features such as payment processing and inventory tracking.

In-store rewards - These startups give grocery stores platforms to offer rewards and cash back to in-store shoppers.

In-store shopper insights - These startups provide software platforms to help food and CPG brands monitor their performance at the granular store level. For example, Metabrite ($18.9M in disclosed funding) provides automated receipt processing to help brands understand purchasing patterns at each individual store. Index helps grocery stores offer targeted promotions and shopper insights based on in-store data.

Merchandising tools - These startups aim to improve merchandising for grocery stores and brands. Blue Yonder uses machine learning to help stores optimize pricing and replenishment. Rangeme and Alkemics aim to connect CPG brands and stores for improved merchandising.

Food waste management - These startups help grocery stores and restaurants manage and reduce food waste. Enterra, with $5M in funding, collects food waste from grocers and converts it to livestock feed and fertilizer. Spoiler Alert, which raised $2.8M from investors including Campbell Soup’s Acre Venture Partners, offers a B2B marketplace to help grocers sell and donate surplus food.

Promotion optimization - Startups such as Eversight ($25.2M in disclosed funding) track the performance of promotions to help stores and brands optimize their promotion strategies.

Store gardens - Startups including BrightFarms set up local hydroponic farms near grocery stores and restaurants so businesses can sell sustainable, local produce. BrightFarms raised $55.4M and works with ShopRite, Wegmans, Giant, and others.

Grocery Store Tech Company List
Company	Category	All Investors
Augment	Augmented/Virtual Reality Tools	Salesforce Ventures
InContext Solutions	Augmented/Virtual Reality Tools	AMD Ventures, Beringea, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Plymouth Ventures
Beabloo	Beacons & Location Tracking	Baozun, Infema Family Office, SoftBank Group
Bfonics	Beacons & Location Tracking	Undisclosed
Estimote	Beacons & Location Tracking	Bessemer Venture Partners, Commerce Ventures, Homebrew, Innovation Endeavors
Euclid Analytics	Beacons & Location Tracking	Benchmark, NEA, Harrison Metal
Footmarks	Beacons & Location Tracking	Commerce.Innovated, R/GA Accelerator
Innorange	Beacons & Location Tracking	Visit Intelligence
PlaceIQ	Beacons & Location Tracking	Alibaba Group, IA Ventures, kbs+ Ventures, US Venture Partners, Valhalla Partners
RetailNext	Beacons & Location Tracking	August Capital, Commerce Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, StarVest Partners
Scanalytics	Beacons & Location Tracking	Wearable IoT World Labs
Sewio Networks	Beacons & Location Tracking	Y Soft Venture Capital
Swirl Networks	Beacons & Location Tracking	General Catalyst, Hearst Ventures, Longworth Venture Partners, Softbank Capital, Twitter Ventures
Walkbase	Beacons & Location Tracking	MoneyTime Ventures, PV Seed
itemMaster	Digital Labels	Chicago Ventures, Edison Partners
ScanLife	Digital Labels	Masthead Venture Partners, Hudson Ventures
Supersmart	Digital Labels	MasterCard Start Path
Enterra	Food Waste Management	Avrio Capital, Wheatsheaf Investments
FoodMaven	Food Waste Management	Undisclosed
Matsmart	Food Waste Management	Edastra Venture Capital, Northzone Ventures
Spoiler Alert	Food Waste Management	Acre Venture Partners, Fresh Source Capital, FTW Ventures, Valley Oak Investments
Fetch Rewards	In-Store Rewards	BrightStar Wisconsin, Great Oaks Venture Capital
FiveStars	In-Store Rewards	DCM Ventures, HarbourVest Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures
Ibotta	In-Store Rewards	Great Oaks Venture Capital
Koupon Media	In-Store Rewards	Matthew Pritzker Company, Mercury Fund, Trailblazer Capital
SavingStar	In-Store Rewards	American Express Ventures, DCM Ventures, First Round Capital, IA Ventures
Civalue	In-Store Shopper Insights	Deutsche Telekom, Mac Fund, Nielsen Innovate, Wellborn Venture
Index Systems	In-Store Shopper Insights	General Catalyst, Innovation Endeavors, Khosla Ventures
Manthan Software Services	In-Store Shopper Insights	DFJ ePlanet Ventures, Eight Roads Ventures, IDG Ventures India, Norwest Venture Partners, Temasek Holdings
MetaBrite	In-Store Shopper Insights	Acorn Ventures, Camp One Ventures
Aila Technologies	Interactive Displays	Bolt Innovation Group, Romulus Capital
CloudTags	Interactive Displays	Alerion Ventures, Foundry Group, Hallett Capital, IDEA Fund Partners, Knoll Ventures
Enplug	Interactive Displays	#Dominate Fund, 500 Startups, Amidi Group, Amino Capital
eyeQ	Interactive Displays	Alignment Capital Group, Corsa Ventures, DreamIt Ventures
Ksubaka	Interactive Displays	Undisclosed
Alkemics	Merchandising Tools	Cathay Innovation, Index Ventures, Partech Ventures, SEB Alliance, Serena Capital
Blue Yonder	Merchandising Tools	Warburg Pincus
RangeMe	Merchandising Tools	Freestyle Capital, Simon Equity Partners, Transmedia Capital
Shelvspace	Merchandising Tools	AngelList, Tallwave
ATMO Select	Music Management	SA Framtak
Kazum	Music Management	Undisclosed
Rockbot	Music Management	Detroit Venture Partners, Google Ventures, Universal Music Group
Soundtrack Your Brand	Music Management	Creandum, Northzone Ventures, Telia, Spotify
Eversight	Promotion Optimization	Bow Capital, Emergence Capital Partners, Industry Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures
Quri	Promotion Optimization	Catamount Ventures, Matrix Partners, Simon Equity Partners
Shelfbucks	Promotion Optimization	Capital Factory
Clic and Walk	Real-Time Shelf Monitoring	BPI France, Breega Capital, CITA Investissement
GoSpotCheck	Real-Time Shelf Monitoring	Insight Venture Partners, Oakview Group, Point Nine Capital, Venture51
Mobee	Real-Time Shelf Monitoring	Accomplice, Flint Capital, InterWest Partners
Observa	Real-Time Shelf Monitoring	Undisclosed
Trax Image Recognition	Real-Time Shelf Monitoring	Investec
Ecrebo	Shopper Feedback	Octopus Ventures
TruRating	Shopper Feedback	Peter Ayliffe, SandAire
Wyzerr	Shopper Feedback	Connetic Ventures, Rough Draft Ventures
flexReceipts	Smarter Receipts	AltaIR Capital, Angel Street Capital, PJC, Struck Capital, Synchrony Financial
Snapcart	Smarter Receipts	SPH Media Fund, Wavemaker Partners
BrightFarms	Store Gardens	Catalyst Investors, Emil Capital Partners, Montage Ventures, NGEN Partners, WP Global Partners
Bindo Labs	Store Management	Compound Ventures, East Ventures
Frogtek BOP	Store Management	Undisclosed
Lightspeed POS	Store Management	Accel Partners, iNovia Capital, Investissement Quebec
ShopKeep POS	Store Management	Canaan Partners, Contour Venture Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners, TTV Capital
COSY	Store Robots & Chatbots	Ben Franklin Technology Partners, GreatPoint Ventures, Intel Capital, Safeguard Scientifics
Fellow Robots	Store Robots & Chatbots	Crowdfunder, HAX
Satisfi	Store Robots & Chatbots	DreamIt Ventures, Stadia Ventures
Simbe Robotics	Store Robots & Chatbots	Cherubic Ventures, HAX, Pillar