KSI Vision in Forbes: the Uruguayan startup that analyzes in-store behavior and won over clients like Inditex, Mango, and Falabella

In the retail world, the vast majority of revenue still comes from physical stores. But unlike e-commerce - where every click, scroll, and purchase is tracked in detail - less than 5% of retailers have tools to understand what happens inside their locations. To close that gap, KSI Vision was born: a Uruguayan startup aiming to bring the level of analytics from e-commerce into the physical world.

The company, co-founded by Pablo Senatore, Gonzalo Carozo, Sofía Lemes Porteiro, and Rodrigo Duarte Katcher, developed software compatible with any security camera that uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to convert images into data about consumer behavior.

The solution makes it possible to understand everything from which store zones capture the most attention to why a sale is lost or how efficiently the sales team converts a visit into a purchase. It also complies with the strictest privacy regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): no images are stored and no personal information is collected.

Software insights

KSI Vision allows you to identify bottlenecks, estimate losses from inefficiencies, and make data-driven business decisions. "One client identified that sales conversion dropped 30% during peak queue times," explained Lemes Porteiro. She added that the software allowed them to discover the problem, quantify it, and - using simulation and loss-prevention tools - identify the actions needed to fix it.

Other clients optimized staff deployment or redesigned their stores based on the insights generated, with tangible results in sales, customer experience, and operational efficiency.

Currently, the solution is used in sectors including fashion, department stores, and other retail verticals. KSI Vision is hardware-agnostic and also sector-agnostic: it adapts to any type of camera, digital or analog.

Expansion and global clients

The company was born in Uruguay, but its vision was always international. After validating the solution in the local market, KSI Vision began an organic expansion that took it to several countries across the Americas and Europe. It was also selected for the Morgan Stanley accelerator program in New York, where it received a US$250,000 investment - which was used to accelerate business growth - along with six months of intensive mentoring.

"It was a before and after. We went from being a bootstrapped startup to having successful entrepreneurs investing in us and supporting us as if they were part of the team."- Sofía Lemes Porteiro, co-founder of KSI Vision

The company currently operates in 11 markets - Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, the United States, Germany, Spain, England, Italy, and Switzerland - and works with some of the world's largest retailers. Its clients include groups such as Inditex, Falabella, Duty Free, and Cencosud.

Now, it is preparing to raise a new investment round with three focuses: accelerating expansion in the United States, supporting global rollout with its major clients, and continuing to invest in research and development.

The five-year vision is ambitious but concrete: become the global standard for physical store analytics. "Just as no one considers running an e-commerce without Google Analytics, we want no physical store to operate without KSI Vision," concluded Lemes Porteiro.