Standard Cognition buys cashierless startup DeepMagic to take on Amazon Go

Back in August, we wrote about cashierless checkout startup Standard Cognition when the company raised $35 million in funding to accelerate growth. Now, Standard announced it has acquired the assets of DeepMagic, a New York-based startup focused on unattended, automated retail. This is a strategic move on the part of Standard as some of the cashierless checkout technology has been patented by DeepMagic. The acquisition provides Standard with some protection should Amazon choose to patent the technology used in its Amazon Go stores.

DeepMagic was founded by Bernd Schoner and Davi Geiger. As part of the acquisition, Schoner will join Standard in a consulting capacity, to help manage the integration of DeepMagic’s technology into Standard’s platform. The startup has developed strong computer vision technology that can identify individual items with outstanding accuracy and has deployed commercial systems in the US and Europe. The company also holds key patents dating back to 2016 covering important elements of autonomous checkout technology. Together, these factors made DeepMagic an excellent acquisition candidate for Standard. Both companies were among the earliest startups in the space.

“Both Standard and DeepMagic took a computer-vision only approach to autonomous checkout, making our technologies very compatible,” said Jordan Fisher, co-founder and CEO of Standard Cognition. “We both knew from the start that in order to retrofit into existing retail environments, we needed to maintain a very low footprint – a cameras-only system is the best way to do that. DeepMagic had developed very strong computer vision technology that fits very well into our technology portfolio – we’re excited to take the technology forward.”

Bernd Schoner, co-founder and CEO of DeepMagic, said, “We’re thrilled that our technology will live on in the Standard platform. We’ve long admired Standard’s approach to autonomous checkout. They are currently leading this market and we believe they are well positioned to win big in this space.”

Standard Cognition was one of the first startups in the autonomous checkout space, and first to open a cashierless store in San Francisco. Recently named to Y Combinator’s Top Companies List for 2019, Standard is currently working with retailers across the US and the world. The company has raised $86M in funding from high-profile investors including CRV, Initialized Capital, EQT Ventures and Y Combinator.

Founded in 2017 by Brandon Ogle, Daniel Fischetti, David Valdman, John Novak, Jordan Fisher, Michael Suswal, and TJ Lutz , the San Francisco, California-based Standard is an artificial intelligence platform that allows buyers to grab what they want without having to go to a cashier. The startup provides flexible AI-powered autonomous checkout solutions for brick & mortar retailers. Standard helps retailers reduce labor costs, improve the customer experience, and improve profit margins by up to 100 percent. Standard has raised a total of $86.1M in funding over 5 rounds. Its latest funding was raised on Jul 25, 2019 from a Series B round.