Our Investment in Scandit: disrupting the supply chain with computer vision
The supply chain is one of the last core functions of business to be disrupted by technology. In many sectors, today’s supply chain is no different to the supply chain used by Henry Ford, with people still using pen and paper to manually record inventory, and telephone calls to manage relationships with suppliers. The supply chain has also been poorly served by legacy players and handheld barcode scanners that are slow, unreliable and can cost five times more than software compatible with off-the-shelf smartphone technology.
With the advent of the on-demand economy and increased levels of competitiveness, the time is ripe for supply chain disruption, and Scandit is leading the way.
Scandit turns any smartphone into a data capture device with barcode scanning, text and object recognition. As a leader in Automatic ID and data capture (AIDC) technology, Scandit helps lower the cost of the supply chain while enabling new cutting edge use cases to be developed.
Founded in 2009 by Samuel Mueller, Christian Floerkemeier and Christof Roduner, Scandit fuses mobile and computer vision technology to help complete critical processes in complex and global supply chains, whilst capturing unique data to improve productivity and lower costs. The company was born at ETH Zurich, one of Europe’s tech research powerhouses. Scandit’s expertise in object and text recognition and augmented reality will help spur the creation of new supply chain solutions, from hands-free inventory management using digital eyewear, to drones flying through warehouses updating inventory as they pass through each aisle. It’s no surprise that over 400 companies have already chosen Scandit’s software to speed up the way a product develops and moves from manufacturer to customer, including Home Depot, Macy’s, Shell and GE Healthcare.
We are proud to back Samuel and his team by leading Scandit’s $7.5m Series A round as they develop their stronghold in a $25bn supply chain solutions market. Through their cloud-based and hardware-agnostic solution for mobile devices, wearables and drones, Scandit is set to replace traditional fixed and handheld barcode scanners used in retail and logistics sectors.
We’re extremely impressed with Samuel’s ambition and how much the company has already achieved — he is exactly the kind of founder we look for having built a company that, through its disruptive technology, is well-positioned and ready to expand to become a global category leader.
Alongside our investment, Teddie Wardi will join the board and our value creation team will partner with Samuel and his brilliant team — including existing investor and founder-funder Ariel Luedi, former CEO of Hybris Software — to scale the business with a particular focus on marketing and talent acquisition.
We recently published a report called the State of European Tech, which highlighted a wave of founders and engineers in Europe successfully employing deep technology to unlock huge value in traditional sectors. Scandit is another European tech company bringing that vision to life and we can’t wait to see what’s next.
