Asics Corporation announced that Asics Ventures Corporation, its investment subsidiary, has taken an equity stake in Aura Vision, a startup that provides in-store analytics for offline retailers.
Aura Vision is headquartered in the UK, and is led by Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Martinho-Corbishley.Aura Vision is a startup founded in 2017 and provides in-store analytics for offline retailers, using their existing security cameras. With their proprietary technology, Aura Vision is able to detect and track in-store traffic and segment footfall based on age, gender, and other demographic factors, without relying on any facial recognition whatsoever. This places Aura Vision in a unique position, where they are compliant with GDPR regulations.
The solution is also able to differentiate staff members, so retailers can leverage this information to understand where staff and customers spend their time while in-store, and uncover opportunities for operational improvements. Aura Vision took part in the Y Combinator Winter 2019 batch.
Asics has taken an equity stake in anticipation of uncovering opportunities for improvements of store operation and merchandising by tracking in-store traffic of customers with Aura Vision’s system. Asics will consider using Aura Vision’s system within its owned stores
Asics said it’s aiming to achieve sustainable growth by focusing on new business development efforts through Asics Ventures.
