Ruti Clothing Chain Secures $6 Million to Develop Facial Recognition Retail Platform

Biometrics News – Facial Recognition

The fashion brand Ruti is looking to expand with $6 million in Series A funding. While some of the money will be used to open new retail locations and improve its online storefront, some of it will be used to develop a proprietary facial recognition platform that will offer a more personalized shopping experience.

The AI-driven platform will be opt-in only, and will generate customer profiles based on past purchases and behavior, including the items customers have tried on. It will then provide those customers with clothing recommendations tailored to their specific body and style. Repeat shoppers currently account for 75 percent of Ruti’s sales, which suggests that the store will have plenty of opportunities to develop comprehensive profiles of its clientele.

“Three years ago I had a dream that I will have ‘magical’ glasses that, once a customer enters my store, will tell me who she is, what she loves, and how can I be helpful to her and enable me to give her what she really wants and needs,” said Ruti Co-Founder and CEO Ruti Zisser.

“The thing that keeps customers coming back is their personal relationship with our brand,” added CTO Sharon Segev. “They appreciate that we are able to provide them with products catered to their style and the use of technology vastly enhances our ability to do just that.”

Of course, Ruti is not the first company to display an interest in the retail applications of facial recognition. VSBLTY recently partnered with Sensormatic in an effort to boost customer engagement, while CyberLink placed the technology in a new customer service robot that was unveiled earlier this year.  

According to Segev, Ruti’s facial recognition tech will make online shopping feel more like the in-store experience. The Series A funding round was led by Viola Ventures. 

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October 30, 2019 – by Eric Weiss