SAN FRANCISCO — Tote.ai, the first AI-native point-of-sale system for fuel and convenience stores, has received $22.6 million in funding to accelerate hiring, market expansion and product features. The round was led by Cota Capital, with Storm Ventures and Cervin Ventures also participating.
Tote’s “one customer, one cart” architecture creates a seamless shopping experience from forecourt to store. Customers can start shopping at the pump, add items via mobile, and complete their purchase at any register or self-checkout without rescanning. Because Tote built AI into the original product design, retailers can integrate promotions and loyalty offers that drive high-margin sales and offer each customer a stand-out, personalized experience in ways that bolted-on AI cannot.
“While convenience stores and their millions of customers are a cornerstone of American life, this industry has been overlooked,” said Adit Singh, Partner at Cota Capital. “These local businesses are shackled to outdated legacy technology that can’t deliver the convenient, friendly service customers expect from them. Tote stepped up where no one else in tech would and got a fresh take on these retailers and their customers. The founders have built a system that will put convenience back in the convenience store, and we’re proud to be a partner.”
Tote.ai is led by Shyam Rao. Rao is the former CEO of Punchh, which sold to PAR Technologies for over $500 million. The team includes experienced technologists with backgrounds in loyalty, payments, and point of sale from companies like Punchh, Visa, Clover, and Lightspeed Commerce.
“Fuel and convenience stores have been ignored for a long time,” said Rao, CEO of Tote.ai. “But these stores are the bedrock of small communities, bustling city neighborhoods, and America’s highways. We saw an opportunity to help store leaders embrace new online, app-driven consumer behavior. Tote’s headless, event-driven architecture makes it easy for stores to cater promotions to the customer’s interests, offer discounts and loyalty sign-ups during every transaction, and increase per-visit sales.”
Tote.ai gives fuel and convenience store leaders real-time visibility into operations, productivity, marketing campaigns and conversions across all devices, systems and stores, radically improving store operations. Before Tote, making adjustments involved enlisting an IT army for help, with long lead-times to resolution. Using Tote, managers or executives can make changes to menus, promotions, prices and products with a few clicks and without requiring IT assistance, greatly improving flexibility and enabling stores to quickly adapt and capture revenue opportunities as they arise.
“You have probably been visiting the same gas station and convenience store for years or even decades,” said Arun Penmetsa, Partner at Storm Ventures. “Yet, there is no personalization. On premise hardware, multiple systems that don’t integrate, no omni channel options and lack of analytics cost the industry tens of billions a year. Tote is solving this exact problem through a modern AI driven platform that combines fuel, in-store management, loyalty and payments all supported by a single data layer.”
