糖心视频

Here at Crunchbase News, we love covering companies that are poised to disrupt industries that are stuck with age-old inefficient processes.

So when I stumbled upon the news that an Austin startup with its eye on 鈥渆liminating鈥� for the retail industry had raised some money, I paid attention. Especially when said startup is doing it with the use of AI-powered autonomous drones.

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Specifically, raised a $5 million early-stage round just eight months after it raised $2.2 million in a . led the new round, which also included participation from new investor as well as existing investors , , , and others. As part of the financing, , partner at Signia Venture Partners, will join Pensa鈥檚 board of directors.

Pensa says that its system 鈥渁utomatically and systematically tracks in-store inventory using advanced computer vision, patent-pending artificial intelligence and autonomous drones to see and understand what is on store shelves.鈥� The goal behind it to help retailers and brands avoid having out-of-stock items unnecessarily and thus increase their revenue.

Pensa operates as a data subscription service. The company describes its drones as 鈥渟mall and safe,鈥� and designed to operate after hours or selectively during store hours 鈥渨hen areas are free.鈥� The drones, according to Pensa, are able to see and understand shelf conditions in real time, 鈥渁cting as remote eyes to a system in the cloud.鈥� Then, the company鈥檚 AI analyzes that data over time so that it can predict low stock before the items actually are gone from the shelves.

In a , the company said the funding would go toward getting more store trials with large retailers and CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) brands globally. It鈥檚 already completed 鈥渕ultiple successful live trials鈥� with some major consumer brands and retailers, including Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), which actually also became a strategic investor through its ZX Ventures growth and innovation unit.

鈥淧ensa is doing breakthrough work with AI and drones, bringing data to bear on a significant and costly problem for retail鈥攖he lack of consistent on-shelf inventory visibility,鈥� said Cluss, in a prepared statement. 鈥淒ata and technology are critical to retail鈥檚 future, and we are excited to help Pensa bring their vision to reality.鈥�

, a vice president at ZX Ventures, said his firm explored a variety of solutions to the problem of out-of-stock products and found Pensa鈥檚 approach to be 鈥渢ruly novel.鈥�

Photo courtesy of Pensa Systems