The Técnico startup Sensei has secured a Seed round of €5.4M. The funding is led by Seaya Ventures and Iberis Capital, with participation from 200M Fund managed by BPF, and existing investor LeadX Capital.

The startup created by professor Paulo Carreira (IST Department of Computer Science and Engineering – DEI), and the Técnico alumni Vasco Portugal, Joana Rafael and Nuno Moutinho, will use the funding to scale the company’s R&D, accelerate new store launches and increase the team size.

According to the Sensei’s statement, based on data from the Crunchbase platform, “this round is the largest Seed round raised by a company in Portugal to date” and “the first European autonomous retail technology vendor to raise capital”.

Launched in 2017, Sensei is a fast-growing retail tech startup created to help millions of people around the world to have a better shopping experience, empowering all existing stores to be autonomous and check-out free.

“Sensei’s technology will help level the playing field for retailers to compete against digital giants such as Amazon. We aim to enhance the familiar and enjoyable customer shopping experience, making it seamless, convenient and safe”, highlights Vasco Portugal.

The company currently works “with all sizes of grocery, convenience, grab-and-go stores” and “other retail formats”, and “is actively pursuing expansion into European markets including the UK, France, Germany and Spain”.

Sensei’s platform uses cameras, sensors and AI algorithms almost imperceptible to customer’s eyes.

The technology brings endless advantages to retailers such as real-time in-store inventory analytics, customer insights, which will help to understand customers, their preferences and their in-store behaviour, improving customer’s and worker’s in-store experience.

Vasco Portugal’s testimony on the 6th Alumni E.Stories.