About Sensei
Sensei is a Retail company based in Lisbon (Portugal) founded in 2017 by Nuno Moutinho, Paulo Carreira, Vasco Portugal, and Joana Rafael. It operates as an AI-based autonomous solutions are provided for offline retail stores. It operates on a AI-as-a-Service and Product-as-a-Service model in Retail, Industrial Goods & Manufacturing, and Financial Services sectors. Sensei has raised $34.36 million across 7 funding rounds from investors including METRO, Techstars and BlueCrow. Its chief executive is Vasco Portugal. Its website sensei.tech draws about 27 thousand monthly visits. Sensei offers products and services including Autonomous Store, Pod, Cabinet, and Lane. Its focus areas include Retail Tech and Autonomous Retail Solutions. Its competitors include Okta, ParallelDots, Morpho, SpiderAF and Gemalto and 1 more; 3 of its 6 listed competitors have raised funding.
Company details
Sensei is engaged in developing autonomous retail experiences powered by computer vision and artificial intelligence. Solutions are provided for various industries including supermarkets, workplaces, mobility hubs, education, hospitality, leisure, and health and wellness. Different formats such as stores, pods, cabinets, and lanes are offered to enhance operational efficiency and provide frictionless shopping experiences. Retail operations are optimized through real-time inventory visibility and data insights, while customer privacy is ensured with GDPR-compliant technology. Expansion opportunities are supported by enabling 247 operations with minimal staff requirements.
- Headquarters Lisbon, Portugal
- Founders Nuno Moutinho, Paulo Carreira, Vasco Portugal, Joana Rafael
- SectorsRetailIndustrial Goods & Manufacturing Financial Services Technology
- Website sensei.tech
- Social LinkedIn X Facebook YouTube
- Total Equity Funding$34.36M (USD)
in 7 rounds
- Latest Funding Round$16.22M (USD), Series A
Oct 2024
- InvestorsMETRO
& 12 more
Products & Services of Sensei
Sensei offers a comprehensive portfolio of products and services, including Autonomous Store, Pod, Cabinet, and Lane.
Autonomous stores are built using AI and vision.
Fully autonomous pods operate 24/7 with flexibility.
Self-contained cabinets offer autonomous plug-and-play solutions.
Express checkout lanes embed into existing stores.
Apps and channels of Sensei
its YouTube channel Sensei has 317 subscribers and 30 videos.
Videos from Sensei
The most watched videos on Sensei's YouTube channel, Sensei (317 subscribers). Click a video to play it here.
More on Sensei.
Funding Insights of Sensei
Sensei has successfully raised a total of $34.36M across 7 strategic funding rounds. The most recent funding activity was a Series A round of $16.22 million completed in October 2024. This substantial capital infusion reflects strong investor confidence in the company's business model, growth potential, and market opportunities. The funding enables strategic expansion, product development, market penetration, and operational scaling to drive long-term value creation and competitive advantage.
- Total Funding $34.36M
- Total Rounds 7
- Last Round Series A — $16.22M
- Investors Count 13
All 7 funding rounds of Sensei with amounts and investors; the two latest post-money valuations are shown, the rest are part of the premium plan.
| Date | Amount | Transaction Name | Valuation | Lead Investors | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2024 | $16.22M | Series A | – | BlueCrow | |
| Nov 2021 | $5.51M | Seed | – | – | |
| Nov 2021 | $5.51M | Seed | – | – | |
| Apr 2021 | $6.5M | Seed | – | Seaya, Iberis Capital | |
| Mar 2018 | $123,762 | Grant | – | – | |
| Feb 2018 | $614,568 | Seed | – | – | |
| Jan 2017 | – | Seed | – | – |
13 investors in total: 13 institutional.
Investors in Sensei
Sensei has secured backing from 13 investors, including institutional and venture fund investors. Prominent investors backing the company include METRO, Techstars and BlueCrow.
| Investor | Description | Founded Year | Domain | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Lince Capital is engaged in venture capital fund management. | 2018 | lince-capital.com | Lisbon, Portugal | |
Explorer Investments is recognized as Portugal’s leading independent alternatives fund manager. | 2003 | explorerinvestments.com | Lisbon, Portugal | |
Kamay Ventures is engaged in corporate venture capital funding. | – | kamayventures.com | Latin America | |
Startups are accelerated globally without sector restrictions through structured programs. | 2006 | techstars.com | New York, United States | |
Tech companies are funded by Seaya, a venture capital firm. | – | seaya.vc | Madrid, Spain | |
Iberis Capital is recognized as a leading private equity and venture capital manager in Portugal. | 2017 | iberiscapital.com | Lisbon, Portugal | |
Leon Casino is operated as an online gaming platform. | – | 200m.pt | - | |
Private equity investments in mergers and acquisitions are managed. | – | leadxcapital.com | Munich, Germany | |
Startup acceleration is offered for growth-stage and connected car ventures. | – | impact-accelerator.com | Madrid, Spain | |
Investment in cybersecurity, retail technologies, and emerging sectors through venture capital. | – | brpx.com | - |
Investor details for Sensei
The complete investor list, round-by-round participation and investor portfolios require an active premium plan.
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- Round participation
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Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
People of Sensei
19 people are tracked at Sensei (8 in leadership, 11 in team).
| Name | Role | Group |
|---|---|---|
Nuno Moutinho | Co-Founder & CTO | Leadership |
Paulo Carreira | Co-Founder & CSO | Leadership |
Vasco Portugal | Co-Founder & CEO | Leadership |
Joana Rafael | Co-Founder & COO | Leadership |
Pedro Albuquerque | CFO | Leadership |
Inês Quaresma | Head of People | Leadership |
José Diogo Varatojo | Head Of Growth | Leadership |
José Maria Duarte | Head Of Operations | Leadership |
Tiago Gaspar | Computer Vision Engineer | Team |
Cristina Melicio | Computer Vision Engineer | Team |
Jorge Pereira | Lead Software Engineer | Team |
Manuel Cortes | Supply Chain Manager | Team |
Rui Ricardo Mingacho | Creative & Brand Manager | Team |
André Jorge | Growth | Retail Success Lead | Team |
Rui Branco | Funding Manager | Team |
Ricardo M. | Stores Operations Specialist | Team |
João Silva | Software Engineer | Team |
Alisson Suzigan | Software Engineer | Team |
Miguel Garcia | Backend Software Engineer | Team |
Complete people profiles for Sensei
Full employee and board profiles, team structure, tenure and professional contact details require an active premium plan.
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Timeline of Sensei
3 dated milestones of Sensei across 7 years, from founding to its latest funding, stage changes and deals.
- Founded Sensei is founded.
- Funding First funding round.
- Funding Latest funding round, Series A, of $16.2M.
Competitors of Sensei
Sensei has 6 listed competitors in our database, 3 of them funded. They include Okta, ParallelDots, Morpho, SpiderAF and Gemalto, among others.
| Company Name | Domain | Founded | HQ Location | Total funding | Employees | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| okta.com | 2009 | San Francisco, United States | $228.5M | 5,908 | Cloud-based identity management and authentication are provided for enterprises. | |
| paralleldots.com | 2014 | Seattle, United States | $6.5M | 126 | AI-powered image recognition solutions are provided for retail businesses. | |
| morpho.com | 1990 | – | – | – | Secure identity authentication solutions are provided through biometric systems. | |
| spideraf.com | 2011 | Minato, Japan | $7.9M | – | Ad fraud detection platform is utilized to safeguard advertising budgets. | |
| gemalto.com | 1979 | Amsterdam, Netherlands | – | 17 | Secure personal devices and SIM cards are provided worldwide. | |
| youverse.id | 2019 | Oeiras, Portugal | – | – | Decentralized biometric authentication is provided for web3 applications. |
Detailed competitors of Sensei
The full competitor set, operating metrics and side-by-side benchmarks require an active premium plan.
- Full competitor set
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Web traffic of Sensei
The website of Sensei (sensei.tech) receives about 27.4K visits a month.
- Monthly visits27.4K
▲ 15.8% vs previous month
Top companies in Autonomous & In-Store Retail Tech
10 companies that operate in the same segment as Sensei (Autonomous & In-Store Retail Tech), ranked by their profile score on The Company Check.
| Company | Description | Founded | Location | Total funding | Revenue | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Purchase financing solutions are offered to businesses via installment payments. | 2019 | Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates | USD 837 M | – | 4,683 | |
Point-of-sale financing is facilitated via an online platform for retailers. | 2016 | Los Angeles, California, United States | USD 158.63 M | – | 576 | |
App-based bookkeeping solutions are offered for small business management. | 2018 | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India | USD 186.62 M | USD 165.88 K | – | |
POS solutions are provided for retail businesses. | 2009 | San Francisco, California, United States | USD 519.75 M | USD 24.19 B | 6,214 | |
Provider of cloud-based POS software solutions for businesses and service providers | 1999 | San Francisco, California, United States | USD 923 M | – | 2,684 | |
Retail intelligence platform is developed for brands and B2B retailers. | 2008 | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India | USD 21.11 M | USD 7.69 M | 345 | |
Point-of-sale financing is enabled for installment purchases at partnered retailers. | 2016 | Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States | USD 17.51 M | USD 450.28 M | 408 | |
Loyalty management solutions are provided for offline retail stores. | 2012 | San Francisco, California, United States | USD 23.1 M | – | 23 | |
Mobile apps enable real-time retail data collection by field teams. | 2011 | Denver, Colorado, United States | USD 71 M | – | – | |
Unified platform for retail and supply chain planning is offered. | 2005 | Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland | USD 816.41 M | USD 247.75 M | 2,302 |
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Related news about Sensei
Complete news archive for Sensei
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Frequently Asked Questions about Sensei
Sensei was founded in 2017.
Sensei is headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal.
Vasco Portugal is the current CEO of Sensei. They have also founded this company.
Sensei is a funded company, having raised a total of $34.36M across 7 funding rounds to date.
Sensei is engaged in developing autonomous retail experiences powered by computer vision and artificial intelligence. Solutions are provided for various industries including supermarkets, workplaces, mobility hubs, education, hospitality, leisure, and health and wellness. Different formats such as stores, pods, cabinets, and lanes are offered to enhance operational efficiency and provide frictionless shopping experiences. Retail operations are optimized through real-time inventory visibility and data insights, while customer privacy is ensured with GDPR-compliant technology. Expansion opportunities are supported by enabling 247 operations with minimal staff requirements.
Sensei's top competitors include Okta, ParallelDots and SpiderAF.
Sensei offers Autonomous Store, Pod, Cabinet, and Lane.
Sensei has 13 investors. Key investors include METRO, Techstars, BlueCrow, Lince Capital, and Explorer Investments.