StoriesAI & Retail
The counter he switched off.
A passenger counter that was working, shut down two years before the market that killed it arrived.
Shakhzod Umirzakov · Jamshidjon Khakimjonov
8 min read
What this case turns on
- 01Problem
- 02Constraint
- 03Decision
- 04Move
- 05Result
01The Problem
DocumentedRevenue was leaking from his father’s bus depot through uncounted cash fares.
02The Constraint
DocumentedIn 2019 Almaty rolled out the Onay cashless transit system. In his words: once cash payments disappeared, the device would not make much sense any more.
03The Decision
DocumentedAbandon a working, revenue-positive product ahead of the shift, and carry forward only the insight underneath it — that most offline businesses operate without data.
this is the moment agency is visible- Article digitalbusiness.kz
- Article IT Park Uzbekistan
04The Move
DocumentedBuilt an infrared passenger counter for the depot in 2018; deployed it to 85+ buses through 2019; then made hundreds of cold calls to retailers before launching TASS Vision in 2021.
- Article digitalbusiness.kz
- Article IT Park Uzbekistan
05The Result
DocumentedInstalled in more than 2,000 stores across ten countries. A Series A closed in 2025, led by Purple Ventures.
- Article digitalbusiness.kz
- Article Tech.eu
Agency signals
Each names the section that shows it
What this decision demonstrates.
Clear Thinking
Reads the situation as it is, including when that is inconvenient.
Shown in The Decision
Resourcefulness
Works with what is already there instead of waiting for the right conditions.
Shown in The Move
Disagreeability
Holds a position the room does not share, and carries the cost of it.
Shown in The Decision
Read across the archive
Where this case is used as evidence.
- Build Around What ExistsIdea · pattern
The fastest route usually runs through something already in people’s hands.
- Leave While It Is Still WorkingIdea · observation
The decision that reads as agency was taken roughly two years before it had to be.
- One case is an observation, not a patternField note 05
A reading drawn from a single case can be worth publishing. It is not worth calling a pattern, and the difference is not cosmetic.
- Reputation is not a sourceField note 06
An organisation writing about its own director is not independent evidence, however accurate it is. We hold cases back on that basis, including ones we would like to publish.
- When sources disagree, publish the disagreementField note 07
Two reputable outlets can report the same funding round differently. The temptation is to pick the more convenient figure. We publish neither.
Sources
Where this comes from.
A claim only counts as documented when it is carried by someone outside the people involved. For this case that is digitalbusiness.kz and Tech.eu.
Entrepreneurs from Tashkent created AI cameras for stores
digitalbusiness.kz · 2025-11-03
ArticleIndependent reporting
TASS Vision raises €1.3M to bring privacy-first analytics to physical retail
Tech.eu · 2025-07-14
ArticleIndependent reporting
Success story of TASS Vision: from bus sensors to AI-powered retail analytics
IT Park Uzbekistan
ArticlePublished by an involved organisation
Unresolved
Total funding raised is reported four different ways.
- Tech.eu: €1.3M
- digitalbusiness.kz: ~$1.8M cumulative: $350k early plus a $1.5M Series A
We have not picked between these, so no single figure is published.