Boxy
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Boxy (originally Storelift) was a Paris-based startup founded by David Gabai and Tom Hayat that built a network of autonomous convenience stores. The stores were built from recycled shipping containers and open 24/7: after registering in the Boxy app and linking a payment method, customers entered via QR code, and proprietary technology - hundreds of sensors plus computer vision and deep-learning algorithms - detected the items taken and billed the customer on exit, with no checkout. The offer centered on 250 everyday products at supermarket-comparable prices, targeting peri-urban and rural areas underserved by traditional retail. The company raised a 5-million-euro seed round and a 25-million-euro Series A in February 2022 led by Serena, and had deployed around 40 stores in the Ile-de-France region.
02 / Boxy FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors supported by the current evidence
French retail trade title Linéaires (25 Mar 2024) quoted Boxy’s customer email: inflation and the difficulty for a young company to access financing, plus the complexity of keeping a modest grocery network alongside B2B ambitions, forced the decision to close all 31 Île-de-France automated Boxy stores by 30 Apr 2024.
Company email: difficulty for a young firm to access sources of financing.
Company cited an economic context marked by inflation.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Liquidation
Societe.com’s RCS extract for STORELIFT SAS (838729192), operator of the Boxy autonomous stores, records a 6 Nov 2024 judgment of the Tribunal de commerce de Créteil pronouncing liquidation judiciaire (case 2024J00730), appointing SELARL Fides / Me Céline Perdriel Vaissiere as liquidator and ending the administrator’s mission. Linéaires reported the 31 stores would close by 30 Apr 2024.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Boxy raised a 5-million-euro seed round and, in February 2022, a 25-million-euro Series A led by Serena with CapHorn, LocalGlobe and Bootstrap Europe growth debt, aiming for 1,000 stores by 2025.
- 02
The company entered safeguard proceedings, which were converted to court-supervised receivership (redressement judiciaire) on September 22, 2024.
- 03
On November 19, 2024 the court ordered the company's judicial liquidation (liquidation judiciaire), with the statement of claims filed in June 2025.
- 04
No reliable realized loss figure with clear subject, period and basis has been disclosed; funding raised is not a loss.