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W Ventures, a venture capital and accelerator company, Wednesday announced the addition of Robomart to its growing portfolio.
The Santa Monica, California-based store-hailing technology company, which is revolutionizing the retail industry, received a six-figure cash investment as well as marketing communications services valued at six figures in exchange for equity.
As part of the deal W Ventures struck with Robomart, the company has agreed to open an East Coast headquarters in Baltimore within three years to serve as Robomart’s base for its upcoming expansion.
Founded in 2017, Robomart is the world’s first store-hailing platform, and has revolutionized the retail industry, by delivering the store to consumers, instead of delivering only specific items from a brick-and-mortar store.
Robomart works in a similar fashion to Uber in that you can hail a full store in a truck to come to you and you can pick out your own products without having to go through a lengthy checkout process. The Robomart system is engineered with cutting-edge technologies, including a proprietary RFID-based checkout-free system and purpose-built refrigeration. Users can handpick all their groceries in minutes – right at home – without having to go to the supermarket or wait for a delivery window.
In early trials, the average time from hailing via the app until completion of the transaction was less than 15 minutes. Currently, the company has developed three types of Robomarts: a Pharmacy Robomart, which was recently piloted in West Hollywood; a Grocery Robomart, which features fresh fruits and vegetables as well as refrigerated items; and a ready-to-eat Snacks Robomart – both of which will be rolled out very soon.
Since first making its debut at CES, where the company unveiled the world’s first self-driving grocery store, Robomart has disrupted the industry and received many high-profile awards and features in Forbes, Observer, CNBC and more. Robomart’s driverless vehicles will be added to their fleet as regulations allow. Now, following a successful beta, Robomart is launching in West Hollywood this spring, with the Pharmacy and Snack Robomarts, in addition to the Grocery Robomart.
Robomart has partnered with leading firms including Zeeba, its vehicle fleet supplier, and Zebra Technologies and Avery Dennison, the world’s leaders in RFID, who have provided support for Robomart’s proprietary RFID tracking technology.
W Ventures, in partnership with Warschawski, a full-service marketing communications agency, will implement a variety of integrated marketing and communications campaigns, ranging from traditional media relations and social media strategy to digital advertising in order to enhance national media exposure and increase consumer-focused brand awareness. W Ventures and Warschawski will also design a new website landing page to support the company’s continued growth.
