Mt. View company's kiosks assist drugstore shoppers

Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - by Lisa Sibley

Choosing the right over-the-counter medicine at a pharmacy for his sick children was once no quick trip for Charles Koo.

"Twenty minutes later I was still standing there comparing boxes," he says.

Three years later, Koo, the CEO of Mountain View-based Evincii Inc., can use his company's technology to find what he's looking for in about 15 seconds.

Evincii provides in-store search and advertising software for mass merchant, drug store and supermarket chains. The company emerged from "stealth mode" on April 14, but customers of Longs Drug Stores may already be familiar with its products.

The company's PharmAssist kiosk, which features about 3,000 to 4,000 products reviewed by pharmacists, has been installed in 144 Longs and has more than 1.2 million users. Koo anticipates being in more than 200 locations by the end of the year.

The kiosk, manufactured in Asia and at a local warehouse, helps consumers find over-the-counter products for their particular symptoms and conditions through a touch screen, search-based, multimedia experience.

"It's an opportunity for one-on-one engagement right at the point of purchase," Koo says.

The kiosk is mounted at the edge of a store aisle near the over-the-counter medicine section. A motion sensor detects customers as they walk by, asking questions like "May I help you?"

Stores with the Evincii technology have cross category sales 3 to 6 percent higher than those that don't, the company says.

Venture-backed by Palo Alto-based Norwest Venture Partners and Taiwan-based WK Technology Fund, Evincii has secured $9.2 million in Series A funding, the first round of financing for this private company. It is seeking Series B funding.

The company, which has filed 18 patents to date, has three other products in the pipeline, which Koo wouldn't discuss. They are in beta sites, operating in stealth mode.

The company plans to profit from advertising, including commercials incorporated into its Search Box network. When a user reaches the final product, the drug manufacturer would then be charged. Johnson & Johnson and other major brands are already participating.

Koo says the search results are unbiased. Just because a company is paying to be included doesn't mean it is featured higher in the results.

Registered pharmacist Jimmy Wong, manager of a Costco pharmacy in Tustin, consults for Evincii -- fine tuning what the kiosk recommends.

"My goal is to try to have the kiosk mimic what I would recommend," says Wong, who first met Koo when he was working at the Mountain View Costco.

Long-term, Koo says the company could do an initial public offering, but adds he is open to partnerships with major players that want to work with him. Evincii's name translates to mean, "I conquer information electronically."

Koo says his competitors are traditional database applications seen stores like Borders, which help shoppers find products. But those differ from Evincii because the kiosks require the user to type information into the system.

Another company, Portland-based Healthnotes Inc., makes in-store kiosks that provide pharmacy and product information, good buying guides, health and wellness tips, recipes and promotions. The Healthnotes Connect system has more than 2,000 retail locations, according to its Web site.

Lisa Sibley can be reached at (408) 299-1841 or lsibley@bizjournals.com.

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