SBT Venture Capital, Sberbank's venture capital fund, is set to support a Finnish startup that aims to track consumer flows with WiFi technologies, says Vedomosti.

      Walkbase is working on a tool that will use the signal from cell phones to monitor and study the movement patterns by people indoors.

      Sberbank is expected to provide €3 million, adds Vedomosti.

      Nokia’s former CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo will participate in the investment round and join Walkbase’s advisory board. “Walkbase – solving a big problem at the intersection of connected shoppers, retail analytics and personalised shopping experience – is one of the most exciting early-stage companies I have encountered,” Kallasvuo said.

      According to the newspaper, Sberbank could apply the new system to monitoring traffic inside its branches.

      Walkbase's customer base in Russia include Riv Gosh and Henderson.

      Walkbase is currently evaluating opportunities to start additional pilots with a number of high street retail chains in the UK.

      "Even though online buying is steadily growing, 92% of retail sales still take place in physical stores," notes Tuomas Wuoti, CEO & Co-Founder of Walkbase. He continues: "The world of retail is about to enter into the next major disruption after going online. A prime advantage of online has been the ability to accurately measure buyer behaviour. In online stores, everything can be optimised in real time for the best possible shopping experience. Thanks to new technology, this ability is now spreading to offline retail. It’s taking place really fast and Walkbase is leading that disruption."

      Sberbank of Russia is the largest bank in Russia and CIS. The founder and principal shareholder is the Central Bank of Russia, which owns 50 percent of the Bank's authorized capital plus 1 voting share. The rest of the shares are held by international and domestic investors. The Bank's ordinary and preferred shares have been publicly traded in Russia since 1996, and the American Depositary Shares (ADS) were listed on the London Stock Exchange, admitted to trading in Frankfurt Stock Exchange and over the counter in the US.