Investec leads $19.5m round for Singapore image recognition player

It brings the company’s total capital raised since 2010 to $97.5 million. According to AVCJ Research Singapore’s Broad Peak Master Fund took an 18.2% stake in Trax for $50 million last year – valuing the company at about $220 million. This followed a $15 million investment by Broad Peak in late 2014.

Trax operates a computer vision platform that allows retail shelf images to inform business decision-making in real-time. It analyses more than eight million images per month for consumer goods companies in about 45 countries.

“Experience has told us that a small unlisted company that was able to attract multi-nationals including Coca-Cola, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble and AB InBev, must have a product and service worthy of closer attention,” Richard Forlee, head of Investec’s Asian principal and private equity operations said in a statement.

“When we met the managers and realized the extent of their expertise for such a young business, we were convinced about investing in the company. We believe that Trax’s research and development capability and some of the ongoing work in artificial intelligence, automation and machine learning is a source of great potential.”

Image recognition technology has attracted investment interest around end-uses as diverse as marketing, factory automation, search engine optimization, data management and security. Recent VC activity includes a Series C round for China-based software developer Megvii Technology and a Series A for Viscovery, a Taiwanese start-up servicing the mobile advertising space.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Support services
• Technology
• Expansion
• Singapore
• Growth capital
• TMT
• manufacturing