This London Startup Just Raised $9M to Stop Retail Theft at the Source

Jan de Vries · 2026-08-10

Retailers lose billions every year to theft, and most AI-powered solutions try to fix the problem by sending data to the cloud. But what if the answer isn't in the cloud at all? What if the smartest way to fight retail loss is to keep the intelligence right inside the store, running on the devices that are already there? That's exactly the bet Edgify is making. The London-based edge AI infrastructure company just raised $9 million in Series A+ funding, bringing its total funding to $25 million. The round was backed by Rank Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners, and it's set to accelerate the rollout of a platform that could change how physical retail handles everything from loss prevention to customer experience. ### The Problem With Cloud-Based AI in Retail Here's the thing about traditional AI systems: they rely on heavy infrastructure, constant connectivity, and centralized control. That works fine in theory, but in the real world, it doesn't scale. Most stores don't have dedicated server rooms or the bandwidth to stream every transaction to the cloud. And when you're dealing with sensitive customer data, sending it off-site creates a whole new set of privacy headaches. Edgify flips that model on its head. Instead of sending data to the cloud, the company's platform connects, orchestrates, and trains AI models directly on in-store edge devices. We're talking about self-checkouts, cameras, scales, and point-of-sale systems. These devices become a single, coordinated intelligence layer that can learn locally and share insights across the entire network without a single byte of raw data leaving the building. The benefits are pretty compelling: - **Lower cloud infrastructure costs** - no more paying for massive data pipelines - **Reduced latency** - decisions happen in milliseconds, not seconds - **Better privacy** - customer and operational data never leaves the store - **Faster deployment** - no need to install expensive servers in dedicated spaces ### How Edgify Stops Theft in Real Time Nadav Israel, CEO and Co-founder of Edgify, put it simply: "Intelligence should live where data is created, and devices should learn as one. A store is a fleet of machines that can see, decide and learn together, without a single byte leaving the building." That's not just marketing talk. The platform actually recognizes produce, identifies scan avoidance, spots product-switching, and detects cart-based loss. It does all of this in real time, assisting both shoppers and staff the moment something looks off. For grocers, this is huge. Shrink - the industry term for inventory loss - is a massive drain on margins, and most existing solutions are too slow or too expensive for everyday stores. Edgify's approach is different. It's a single, hardware-agnostic platform that runs across existing equipment from major manufacturers like Zebra Technologies and Bizerba. You don't need to rip out your current setup or invest in new machines. You just add the intelligence layer on top of what you already have. ### Beyond Retail: The Bigger Vision While retail is the proving ground, Edgify has bigger ambitions. The company has already expanded into quick-service restaurants, distribution centers, and apparel. Mitchell Goldman, COO at Edgify, explained why retail is the perfect testing ground: "Retail has more smart devices per site than almost any other industry, and real-world constraints on cost, latency and privacy. Loss prevention is where the value shows up first." But the real breakthrough, he says, is the underlying platform. "Translating isolated in-store hardware into a unified system for future AI applications." Think about what that means. Every smart device in a store - from the scale at the deli counter to the camera above the self-checkout - becomes part of a self-learning network that operates independently of the cloud. That's a foundation for all kinds of future applications, not just loss prevention. ### What's Next for Edgify Over the next few months, Edgify will expand its platform to manage the complete lifecycle of AI models across physical retail. The company is already working with leading grocery retailers and technology partners across the United States and Europe, and this new funding will help it take the intelligence layer built for retail and deploy it across the global industrial landscape. As Israel put it, "This funding will fuel our growth, enabling us to turn millions of isolated machines into self-learning real-time networks that operate independently of the cloud." For retailers struggling with loss prevention, or for anyone who's wondered why AI has to be so centralized and expensive, Edgify is offering a different path. It's a reminder that sometimes the smartest solution isn't in the cloud - it's right in front of you, running on the devices you already own.