Zippin Keeps Rippin', Raises $30M for Cashierless Checkout

Does this include equity crowdfunding?

“You have to listen to the notes she’s not playing.” - Lisa Simpson admiring a musician at The Jazz Hole

“Pffft. I could do that at home.” - The showgoer next to her

Cahierless checkout startup Zippin announced a $30 million fundraise today, bringing the total amount of money it has raised to $45 million. For those who keep track of such things, the fresh capital is from new and existing investors including OurCrowd, Maven Ventures, Evolv Ventures and SAP.

But what interests me more is what Zippin didn’t say in today’s announcement. Mainly, how did its equity crowdfunding campaign, launched just a few months back in May, play into this fundraise? UPDATE: Zippin CEO Krishna Motokuri emailed me to say that yes, the crowdfunding is included in this Series B.

At the time of that crowdfunding announcement, Zippin said it was in the middle of raising this Series B, which included OurCrowd, the online platform where Zippin ran its equity crowdfunding campaign, as an investor.

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In today’s official fundraise announcement, Zippin didn’t mention its crowdfunding campaign specifically, only OurCrowd. Zippin aimed to raise $8.4 million through equity crowdfunding, and according to its OurCrowd listing, that campaign was fully funded.

So what I don’t know is if that $8.4 million was part of the Series B, or if Zippin is counting both the investment from OurCrowd the company, as well as the money it crowdfunded through OurCrowd.

I sent a note to Zippin CEO Krishna Motukuri for clarification, and will update as I hear back.

Equity crowdfunding has been particularly popular with food automation startups, with companies like Miso Robotics, Small Robot Company, and Blendid all running such campaigns. One big reason they do is for marketing. Through crowdfunding, startups can get a small army of evangelists who then go out and spread the gospel for whatever product is being built.

At the end of the day, the whole question of what role equity crowdfunding palyed probably doesn’t matter. Money is money. Zippin was able to raise new funds in part because has been on a tear this year, which is saying something because the entire cashierless checkout space is blowing up. Zippin now powers 30 stores around the world, has launched stores at Barclay’s Center in New York City, and opened up a pop-up cashierless checkout store with AMEX at the U.S. Open this week. With $30 million, it will be able to scale up and out even further.

With today’s announcement one thing is for sure, Zippin isn’t missing any C-notes.