Instacart, an online grocery platform in North America, today announced its acquisition of Caper AI a shopping cart and checkout technology platform.
This acquisition expands Instacart’s comprehensive retailer enablement platform, which currently spans the Instacart marketplace, robust enterprise services that power the ecommerce solutions for many top grocers, fulfillment technology to support delivery and pickup capabilities, last-mile delivery, and much more. With this acquisition, Instacart aims to help retailers unify the in-store and online shopping experience for customers, supporting their businesses no matter how customers choose to shop.
Caper is reimagining the in-store shopping journey by developing cutting-edge AI-powered shopping carts and automated checkout counters that bring together online and offline shopping to create a completely new in-store shopping experience for customers. Caper’s powerful object recognition system lets customers place items into their cart such as fruits, vegetables, and other items without having to scan or weigh them, and check out right at the cart. The company also develops smart checkout counters that use cameras and a weight sensor to auto-detect items placed on its counter, creating an easier and faster express checkout flow for customers at grocery and convenience stores.
“Over the years, Instacart has continued to expand its retailer enablement services, helping brick-and-mortar grocers across North America move their businesses online, grow and meet the evolving needs of their customers. As we look ahead, we’re focused on creating even more ways for retailers to develop unified commerce offerings that help address consumer needs across both online and in-store shopping,”
“That’s why we’re thrilled to welcome the Caper AI team to Instacart. We share the same goal of equipping retailers with new and innovative technologies that help them succeed in an increasingly competitive industry, while also providing customers with the best possible experience. We’re excited to bring Caper’s leading smart carts and smart checkout platform to more retailers around the world, as we all reimagine the future of grocery together.”
– Fidji Simo, Instacart’s CEO
