Tiliter

Sydney,  NSW 
Australia
https://www.tiliterretail.com/

• Booth: 1152

Australian tech company Tiliter makes computer vision software and hardware products for supermarkets and retailers that identify items without barcodes. 

Tiliter software is developed by machine learning engineers working at the forefront of artificial intelligence. It automatically and accurately identifies fresh produce and bulk items without the need for look-up menus or manual PLU entry.

Tiliter's software and proprietary hardware help retailers:

• Reduce shrink
• Reduce the opportunity for fraud 
• Reduce plastic packaging
• Increase efficiencies at the checkout
• Get rich transaction data
• Offer customers a faster, more convenient shopping experience

Using deep learning and data analytic algorithms, we're disrupting industry practices by making innovative computer vision solutions for everyday retail problems accessible to everyone.

 Press Releases

• How Woolworths’ new robots identify produce without barcodes automatically using AI technology (Oct 28, 2021)

  A hi-tech robot device rolled out across Woolworths stores this year has a nifty way of making it virtually impossible for customers to give themselves a “five finger discount”.

  Shoppers with tendencies to “accidentally” scan a lemon instead of an avocado are no match for the new smart scales, which were launched recently as part of the supermarket’s Scan&Go program.

  The scales, developed by Tiliter Retail, automatically weigh and identify products without barcodes, and have so far been rolled out in 36 stores across the country.

  The Artificially Intelligent hypersensitive cameras are so accurate that they can detect the difference not only between different varieties of the same vegetables, like capsicums, but also distinguish between organic and non-organic produce.

  The scales work by recognising an item, which takes less than 200 milliseconds, then presenting on the screen the piece of produce it predicts it to be.

  

  There is a special way these smart scales deter people from giving themselves ‘five finger discounts’. Picture: Woolworths

  Customers have the ability to manually change items selected by the scales, but the device could alert staff members if the AI algorithm is confident of its prediction.

  The scales can also identify non-produce items like wallets, phones, photos, and barcoded items.

  Each item is added to the shopper’s virtual cart after they scan a barcode presented on the screen using the Scan&Go function on the Woolworths app.

  Other products from outside of the produce section can also be added by the customer scanning the item’s existing barcode.

• Tiliter Retail's advanced AI adopted by retail tech market leader Bizerba North America (Oct 28, 2021)

  Partnering with Australian-based tech company Tiliter Retail, Bizerba North America adds powerful computer vision to its retail offering to revolutionize the supermarket customer experience

  Sydney-based computer vision company Tiliter Retail announced today that it is celebrating a reseller partnership with industry-leading retail solutions company Bizerba North America. The provider of weighing, slicing and labelling technology, which can boast an enviably large market share, is offering Tiliter Retail's AI-powered identification software to their new and current retail customers. This complements their existing self-serve scales, helping to reduce checkout frustrations and improve efficiencies. 

  Bizerba North America is part of the Bizerba Group, with affiliated companies in 27 countries and owned subsidiaries in 66 countries. With the addition of Tiliter technology, the Bizerba product suite can identify products like fruit and vegetables accurately and quickly without barcodes which helps shoppers by removing the need for alphabetical lookup menus.  

  Bizerba VP of Retail Americas, Rob Weisz, says, "We welcome this partnership with open arms as our customers have been looking for a produce recognition solution for many years. Tiliter technology is an excellent solution to reduce friction and shrink at self-service touchpoints. It complements our self-service scales and software perfectly and provides retailers with significant ROI opportunities in areas such as organic vs. standard produce recognition, an issue that results in considerable lost revenue annually due to incorrectly keying of product."  

  Tiliter Retail's computer vision software and camera seamlessly integrate with retail self-serve scales. It recognizes items through bags, including organics, in under 10ms, enabling a faster check out and minimizing unhygienic touchpoints. The system comes pre-trained with thousands of product categories and can be readily tailored to suit region-specific and seasonal produce.     

  Bizerba customers who want to implement the M-Class, K-Class or X-Class scales can include Tiliter Retail's computer vision software with the scale to offer their shoppers a seamless checkout experience.    

  Tiliter Retail COO Martin Karafilis says, "This is an exciting partnership for Tiliter Retail. Bizerba North America has an established reputation for class-leading retail software and hardware and has an extensive foothold in the market. With a presence in more than 120 countries around the world, this relationship presents a great opportunity for us to reach into new markets and improve everyday experiences for Bizerba North America's customer base."    

  About Bizerba  
  Bizerba US offers customers within the industry, retail, and logistics sectors a globally unique solutions portfolio of hardware and software-based around the central value "weight". This portfolio includes products and solutions relating to slicing, processing, weighing, cashing, checking, commissioning and labelling. Bizerba US has defined technical developments in handling food and today is present in 120 countries, employing around 4,300 people. Bizerba in North America includes Bizerba USA, Inc., Bizerba Canada, Inc. and Bizerba de México S.A. de C.V. 

  For more information, please go to www.bizerba.com.

  About Tiliter Retail  
  Tiliter Retail, part of Tiliter, is a pioneering Sydney-based AI tech company with a focus on automating retail identification processes. Tiliter Retail uses deep learning and data analytic algorithms to revolutionize industry practices and change the world for the better. For more information or to schedule a demo, visit www.tiliterretail.com or contact sales@tiliter.com.      

• Tiliter bags $7.5M for its ‘plug and play’ cashierless checkout tech (Oct 28, 2021)

  Tiliter, an Australian startup that’s using computer vision to power cashierless checkout tech that replaces the need for barcodes on products, has closed a $7.5 million Series A round of funding led by Investec Emerging Companies.

  The 2017-founded company is using AI for retail product recognition — claiming advantages such as removing the need for retail staff to manually identify loose items that don’t have a barcode (e.g. fresh fruit or baked goods), as well as reductions in packaging waste.

  It also argues the AI-based product recognition system reduces incorrect product selections (either intentional or accidental).

  “Some objects simply don’t have barcodes which causes a slow and poor experience of manual identification,” says co-founder and COO Martin Karafilis. “This is items like bulk items, fresh produce, bakery pieces, mix and match etc. Sometimes barcodes are not visible or can be damaged.

  “Most importantly there is an enormous amount of plastic created in the world for barcodes and identification packaging. With this technology we are able to dramatically decrease and, in some cases, eliminate single use plastic for retailers.”

  Currently the team is focused on the supermarket vertical — and claims over 99% accuracy in under one second for its product identification system.

  It’s developed hardware that can be added to existing checkouts to run the computer vision system — with the aim of offering retailers a “plug and play” cashierless solution.

  Marketing text on its website adds of its AI software: “We use our own data and don’t collect any in-store. It works with bags, and can tell even the hardest sub-categories apart such as Truss, Roma, and Gourmet tomatoes or Red Delicious, Royal Gala and Pink Lady apples. It can also differentiate between organic and non-organic produce [by detecting certain identification indicators that retailers may use for organic items].”

  “We use our pre-trained software,” says Karafilis when asked whether there’s a need for a training period to adapt the system to a retailer’s inventory. “We have focused on creating a versatile and scalable software solution that works for all retailers out of the box. In the instance an item isn’t in the software it can be collected by the supermarket in approx 20min and has self-learning capabilities.”

  As well as a claim of easy installation, given the hardware can bolt onto existing retail IT, Tiliter touts lower cost than “currently offered autonomous store solutions”. (Amazon is one notable competitor on that front.)

  It sells the hardware outright, charging a yearly subscription fee for the software (this includes a pledge of 24/7 global service and support).

  “We provide proprietary hardware (camera and processor) that can be retrofitted to any existing checkout, scale or point of sale system at a low cost integrating our vision software with the point of sale,” says Karafilis, adding that the pandemic is driving demand for easy to implement cashierless tech.

  The startup cites a 300% increase in ‘scan and go’ adoption in the US over the past year due to COVID-19, as an example, adding that further global growth is expected.

  It’s not breaking out customer numbers at this stage — but early adopters for its AI-powered product recognition system include Woolworths in Australia with over 20 live stores; Countdown in New Zealand, and several retail chains in the US such as New York City’s Westside Market.

  The Series A funding will go on accelerating expansion across Europe and the US — with “many” supermarkets set to be adopt its tech over the coming months.

• Tiliter and FutureProof Retail’s new Scan and Go shopping tailored for fresh items (Oct 28, 2021)

  Tiliter and FutureProof Retail (FPR) have partnered to release a Scan and Go technology solution with product recognition and a self-service scale. 

  FPR's solution enables customers to use their smartphones to scan and bag items while they’re shopping. They can then pay on their phone and skip the lines at checkout. 

  The mobile platform integrates with the Tiliter Scan&Go Scale that assists shoppers in adding weight items such as produce and bulk foods to their shopping basket. Instead of entering a PLU number, Tiliter's software automatically identifies the item and shows a barcode on the screen that the customer can simply scan with FPR's Scan and Go app. 

  "Tiliter's Scan&Go Scale with its powerful AI makes FPR's already easy and frictionless solution even easier by enabling automatic recognition of products, dramatically reducing time spent in-store for shoppers," said Di Di Chan, president of FutureProof Retail. 

  The first integration has been deployed in New York City's Westside Market and a range of supermarkets across the US will integrate the new technology by the end of the year. 

  The technology is powered by Tiliter Vision Software that uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to recognize any product without a barcode including fresh produce, mixed nuts, dried fruit, candy, bulk and bakery items. Shoppers do not need to manually search for the desired items or enter a PLU, which ensures a contactless and hygienic checkout experience. 

  "FPR's leading Scan and Go solution is the perfect fit to eliminate touchpoints and enable social distancing in stores,” said Marcel Herz, chief executive officer of Tiliter. “The integration with Tiliter's self-service scale provides the safest shopping experience available.” 

• Start-up that lets supermarket customers skip the scanner raises $7.5m (Oct 28, 2021)

  Computer vision start-up Tiliter has raised $7.5 million in a round led by Investec, as more supermarkets embrace its technology that enables customers to check out without needing to scan items.

  Tiliter, which was founded by Marcel Herz, Martin Karafilis and Chris Sampson in 2017, has created a hardware and software system that automatically identifies items, such as fresh produce, without the need for barcodes, packaging and price stickers, making it easier for shoppers to self-checkout.

  Tiliter co-founders, from left, Marcel Herz, Martin Karafilis and Christopher Sampson already have their technology in 20 Woolworths stores. 

  Speaking to The Australian Financial Review, Mr Karafilis said the business was designed to make the supermarket shopping experience quicker and easier for consumers, while helping the supermarkets reduce deliberate and accidental theft.

  "[The self-checkout] process is slow and time-consuming and we've gone through the phase of online shopping, so we know buying fresh produce online isn't ideal," he said.

  "We knew there was a way we could fix this."

  In a store with between 60 and 120 categories of produce, Tiliter says its technology has 99 per cent accuracy.

  Its checkout tech is already deployed in 20 Woolworths stores throughout Australia, in Countdown supermarkets in New Zealand and in several retail chains in the US, including New York's Westside Market.

  Mr Karafilis grew up with his co-founder Mr Sampson in the regional NSW town of Scone and they jokingly consider their old band to be their first start-up.

  The pair got to know Mr Herz, and when Mr Sampson undertook a masters at the University of NSW the trio decided they wanted to start their own business in the growing field of computer vision.

  Fresh funds

  As well as Investec, which invested $3.5 million through its Emerging Companies Fund, its latest funding round was supported by local angel investor syndicate Eleanor Venture, US-based AngelList and New York's Cornell University.

  Investec's emerging companies head, Karen Chan, said the co-founders had impressed her as "young and resourceful" and also focused on execution.

  "They presented at the Tech23 conference and that was the first time we'd come across them," she said.

  "It's hard to sell into the big supermarket chains, which have long and slow sales cycles, but they demonstrated their ability to close on those deals.

  "We also love backing founders who have homegrown tech and have taken it overseas."

  Global growth during COVID-19

  Within the next 12 months, Tiliter hopes to have its technology in use in more than 1000 supermarkets, particularly targeting the US.

  In the past year it has seen a 300 per cent increase in "scan-and-go" technology use in the US, largely fuelled by COVID-19 and the shift to contactless technology.

  "It's made retailers globally push for innovation ... especially when it comes to cashier-less technology. [They've had to look at] how they implement measures that abide by the latest legislation, as well as health and safety [standards]," Mr Karafilis said.

  "The technology is also being used in warehouses ... to fulfil online orders. So while we're seeing a pick-up in online orders, we're also helping fuel the checkout."

  The company is also increasing its presence in Europe.

  While it is yet to announce any deals there, all three co-founders moved to Munich in 2019 and set up Tiliter's European office.

  Its manufacturing is split 50/50 between Germany and Australia, and Mr Karafilis said the company had already been using R&D tax incentives. He said the recent changes to the scheme, in addition to the $1.5 billion of advanced manufacturing initiatives in the federal budget, would benefit the company.

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