Digital infrastructure for the retail industry
EGV recently invested in Tokinomo in a Seed round with large participation from angels. This is a short piece on what clicked for us and why we decided to invest.
Tokinomo defines itself as a customer engagement platform that increases sales in stores and hypermarkets through customer interaction. The platform consists of a series of robots placed on the shelves in hypermarkets and a web platform that allows their management and the generation of reports and analyses in real-time.
Practically, Tokinomo replaces the teams of promoters with robots that never take a break and always deliver the right script to anyone passing by. The results of the Tokinomo’s technology are spectacular, the company generating an average of 200% sales growth, according to data obtained from brands and retailers.
The effectiveness of the solution and the company’s ability to generate revenue made the deal appealing and attracted the angels. But there is even more value in the long-term play — not in what the company is doing now but in the model to which Tokinomo would evolve.
Today Tokinomo builds a robotic customer engagement platform that delivers results in terms of increasing sales. Tomorrow, the company would move from hardware to software, as its robots collect data directly from the hottest point in the offline customer journey (from the shelf) and at the hottest moment in this journey (the moment when the shopper grabs the product from the shelf).
There is value to be unlocked from this strategic positioning in space and time — we see Tokinomo as the gatekeeper of customer engagement data that is not only accurate and in real-time but also actionable.
In other words, Tokinomo is building the digital infrastructure of the retail industry and investing in their team is consistent with our Infrastructure for innovation thesis.
