ChargeITSpot Raises $19.8M to Advance Device Management for Retailers

Douglas Baldasare

ChargeITSpot, a Philadelphia company providing a device management system to drive retail operations, has raised $19.8 million in new funding from Montclair, N.J.-based SoundBoard Venture Fund, an early investor, and others. Founder and CEO Douglas Baldasare declined to name the other investors, according to a report in Business Journal.

Founded in 2012, ChargeItSpot provided mobile charging service at shopping malls and other locations. It later morphed into device management, notably building software that helps retailers focus on in-store shoppers and also cope with pick-up services for online orders. Sam’s Club, a unit of Walmart, is one of the company’s largest customers. Using ChargeITSpot’s ARC, or Asset Recharge Center, Sam’s Club was due to roll out a club that would have no checkout lines, among other features.

Key Pivot

Baldasare has said that he identified a “critical” issue faced by its clients — device theft or loss, and lost productivity from defective devices — when ChargeITSpot ran its simple charging service in public spaces across the United States. This prompted Baldasare, a Wharton School alumnus, to pivot in 2021.

The company developed ARC to initially secure, charge and monitor employee devices, minimizing device theft and loss, and identifying and fixing faulty devices. ChargeITSpot later added new features to help retailers enhance shopping experiences, with the aim of eliminating checkout lines and speeding up delivery of online orders.

Model Store

Sam’s Club’s model club in the Dallas area will have “no checkout lanes, will display online-only items and will have a larger area for fulfilling e-commerce orders for curbside pickup and home delivery,” according to a report on CNBC. The features are the result of an implementation of ARC.

According to Business Journal, Baldasare also sees opportunity for growth outside of retail and supply chain uses, such as in logistics businesses like UPS and FedEx, and even healthcare. “We’ve learned that the opportunity is quite diversified and pretty big,” Baldasare told Business Journal.

Early Backer
SoundBoard, among the earliest investors in ChargeITSpot, is led by co-founder and managing partner Richard Magid, a former Societe Generale executive and commodities trader. According to his bio on SoundBoard’s website, he also “built and sold a wholesale/retail food business and was integral in securing funding for the start-up of a staffing company.”