Shanghai, Nov 8, 2018 - AEYE-GO, a Chinese technology company developing intelligent checkout system based on AI technology, announced that they had received a capital investment from Sodexo Ventures, a strategic venture capital fund of Sodexo, after its 3-month acceleration by XNode. The parties will work together to further develop the innovative application for catering’s services and to improve the service quality by AI image recognition technology. Sodexo Ventures was launched in 2016 seeking new sources of future growth through investment in innovative startups. This is the first time Sodexo Ventures collaborated with a Chinese tech startup. How can AEYE-GO attract the service giant Sodexo? XNode now uncovers the story of this outside-in collaborative innovation from the perspective of an accelerator.

The Origin

The first contact between Sodexo and AEYE-GO was at a demo day of NeoBay (tech innovation park led by Shanghai Jiao Tong University). Sodexo Digital and Innovation Team tried the prototype of AEYE-GO. Its machine recognition and automatic settlement attracted many audiences. The efficiency of checkout and accuracy of the settlement were very satisfactory.

In the following conversations, both sides realized the collaboration possibility. Sodexo's industry resources and service capabilities can help AEYE-GO to quickly apply its technology to real consumer scenarios while the other hand, AEYE-GO will empower Sodexo’s innovation capacity by speeding up the R&D and quickly adjusting to new business demands. Solving the pain points of customers and improving the quality of life is also the unified goal of AEYE-GO and Sodexo.

The partnership started with a good foundation of technology fit and common belief, but real collaboration has to create business value and not just a signing ceremony. AEYE-GO and Sodexo have taken concrete actions to understand the target market, work out a mutually benefit business plan, improve the product and supporting services according to customer needs, and clarify the benefits and responsibilities on both sides, thus realizing what they have reached today.

Timing is key to innovation, so a third-party accelerator to fasten the collaboration turns out an ideal solution. In April 2018, Sodexo China announced its partnership with XNode and started the outside-in innovation to scout Chinese tech startups and to integrate them into Sodexo’s innovation ecosystem. AEYE-GO was a winning startup from the candidates and selected into the acceleration program by XNode and Sodexo

The Acceleration

How to realize the out-in innovation, achieving high-quality results in a short acceleration period and winning opportunities in the rapid changing market environment? XNode designed a 3-month acceleration program for AEYE-GO and Sodexo with the support of startup methodologies and innovation toolsets to help AEYE-GO in its business model, financial model, and company structure, etc. Regarding the acceleration progress, XNode invited EIR (entrepreneurs-in-residence) to do a 1-to-1 coaching throughout the program,  making sure the project team is on track. The problems could be quickly spotted and solved while new market opportunities were identified and implemented.

As for the product launch, AEYE-GO and XNode’s acceleration team have visited 9 catering venues to get real feedback from operators and finally launched the third-generation system – individual meal recognition. The system adopts machine learning to record massive food data with an average time of meal recognition and pricing in 1.5-second and accuracy no less than 99%. This checkout speed is 2 times faster (only 4-6 seconds per consumer to complete the settlement) than human labor. Meanwhile, the system can also provide data reports to the canteen operators and consumers.

• Canteen operators will get detailed food sales data and consumer habits analysis to improve purchase and to adjust food scheme according to the consumer habits.
• Consumers can receive a dietary health report at the same time of settlement. The report will list the consumer’s nutritional status from a period of dining habit and offer dietary intake suggestion.

Sodexo provided a test ground at Nandan Road and XNode introduced the systematic UAT tool. After one-month onsite trial, AEYE-GO’s third-generation system has realized the pre-test level.

The financial model of a startup is very important for fund raising. Therefore, XNode helped AEYE-GO to sort out the existing business performance, predict the future revenue scale according to the project development plan and product system, and finally estimate the various evaluation parameters of the project. The understanding of fund raising and project evaluation built up the confidence and AEYE-GO submitted a mature business plan after 3-month acceleration despite a novice at dealing with MNC from a different country and culture background.

The Deal

Finally, Sodexo confirmed the investment of AEYE-GO. Belen Moscoso Del Prado Lopez-Dóriga, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, Sodexo, said, “We are extremely excited to announce the first investment from Sodexo Ventures in China to AEYE-GO. We have always believed that combining the flexibility and creativity of local innovative startups with the fundamentals know-how of Sodexo's expertise will enable us to jointly build an ecosystem of digital and innovative services in China. We look forward to working with bigger, better and more powerful Chinese startups in the future to bring much higher value-added solutions and smarter experiences to our customers and consumers.”

Founding team of AEYE-GO, said, “The company originated from solving the pain point of queueing problem in the Jiao Tong University canteen. Backed up by great scientific research and talent resource, we teamed up in the campus and focused on food recognition technology. It took 2 years to set up the database after collecting and tagging almost 100 million food, and to iterate and update for 3 generations: from tableware recognition, tableware with meal recognition, to meal identification. The vision is to build intelligent group meal, which is consistent with Sodexo, the industry pioneer who is having an eye for digital and innovation transformation. Hope our technology strength will inject new vigour to Sodexo and brings it to more dimensions of traditional group meal. As a startup, we’re honored to win the investment from Sodexo Ventures. Sodexo will continue help us with its international resource, market knowledge, and company compliance, etc.”

“The Outside-in program is a new collaborative way between corporates and startups. It will change the traditional and insular mindset in today’s business world. As an innovation accelerator, XNode will continue with our core value – building an open platform for corporates and startups who want to drive business impact together. The way of collaboration varies with the innovation purpose and outcomes, but we believe XNode’s original intention is invariable – helping corporates and startups to create real business value and enabling both of the side to know each other’s advantage and the opportunity of development”, said Lei Niu, Program Director of Corporate Innovation at XNode. This investment deal is not only a solid demonstration of Sodexo in its digital and innovation transformation, but also represents that Chinese tech startups are changing and influencing the world with their own innovative power. We believe in the future thatmore and more players will join the innovation ecosystem and move the world towards a better direction.

About

Sodexo

Sodexo China has 12,500 people at over 500 sites and serves 1,100,000 consumers every day. Since 1995, Sodexo provides a myriad of services to meet client's complex needs across the spectrum of corporate, education, health institute and seniors' home. In China, Sodexo is the only company, as the strategic partner of clients, to design, manage and deliver comprehensive service solutions of On-site Services and Benefits and Rewards Services. Improving Quality of Life of our employees and all those we serve is Sodexo's mission and commitment. Founded on it, through its integrated offering of Foodservices, Engineering Services, Lifestyle Services, Business Support Services and Lab Services, Sodexo helps companies and organizations improve performance every day.

XNode | Startup & Corporate Accelerator

We believe that in China today, successful innovation is a direct result of agility, speed and collaboration. Through continuous iteration, lean methodologies and by truly opening up – innovation can be brought to the market much quicker.

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Startups are always looking for ways to scale through corporate assets, customers, channels and their brand. Corporates, on the other hand, are eager to innovate quicker with more impact.

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