Contactless stores to grow in Europe

While Amazon Go helped pioneer the concept of the totally contactless store, others, like 7-Eleven and Walmart, have entered the territory. And the arena is growing, in part because several startups — such as  Standard Cognition, Zippin, AiFi, Grabango, Trigo — have proliferated, offering their technology to retailers.

But in Europe, Portuguese startup Sensei has been growing its contactless store platform and has now pulled in a €15 million Series A funding round led by BlueCrow Capital. Also participating were new investors Lince Capital, Explorer Investments, and Kamay Ventures (the investment arm of Coca-Cola and Arcor Group), as well as existing investors Metro AG and Techstars Ventures.

In 2021 Lisbon-based Sensei raised a seed round of $6.5 million (€5.4 million). Back then, the funding was led by Seaya Ventures and Iberis Capital, with participation from 200M Fund.