India's largest online grocery seller BigBasket has acquired the enterprise business unit of a deep-tech company incubated by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) with a view to revolutionising offline retail in the country. BigBasket, a Tata enterprise, will be implementing Kochi-based startup Agrima Infotech's unique customer vision technology platform, Psyight, at the self-checkout counters of the former's retail stores.
The acquisition was announced by BigBasket CEO Hari Menon on the sidelines of a two-day virtual 'Huddle Global 2022' of KSUM that got underway in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. Psyight, created by Anoop Balakrishnan, Arun Ravi and Nikhil Dharman under Agrima Infotech, helps identify all Indian fruits and vegetables uniquely from an image without using barcodes, an official statement said here.
KSUM Chief Executive Officer John M Thomas described the acquisition as a milestone for any Kerala startup. "It not only reiterates the strength of our startup ecosystem, but shows the great impression firms such as BigBasket have about our startups," he noted. "I hope the deal would encourage startups to move ahead strongly in their attempt to scale up their business," he said.
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Agrima Infotech co-founder and CEO Anoop Balakrishnan said his startup joining hands with BigBasket will redefine the offline shopping experience in the country. Agrima Infotech co-founder and COO Arun Ravi said detecting raw food items such as fruits and vegetables uniquely from an image is a complex machine vision problem since the appearance of those items may vary with respect to the location of its origin and seasons.
"We have captured thousands of images of each SKU (stock-keeping unit) across the seasons and from different locations to achieve 100 percent accuracy," he added. Menon, noting that the acquisition brings a lot of value to our business, said BigBasket will use this expertise on AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) to enrich and enhance a whole lot of technological innovation in the company.
"We look forward to working with the Agrima team to build solid innovation in the grocery space, he added. Recently, BigBasket opened its first technology-driven self-service Fresho' retail store in Bengaluru," the statement added.
