Scandit raises $80m to digitally transform traditional industries
Technology platform for mobile computer vision and augmented reality (AR) solutions for enterprises, Scandit, has announced that it has raised $80m in Series C related funding led by G2VP, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm of former Kleiner Perkins partners. They were joined by Atomico, GV, Kreos, NGP Capital, Salesforce Ventures and Swisscom Ventures. Scandit has previously raised $43m.
Since the last funding round in July 2018, Scandit has tripled recurring revenues, more than doubled the number of blue-chip enterprise customers, and doubled the size of its global team. The new funding will further accelerate growth in new markets such as APAC and Latin America, as well as expand Scandit’s footprint and operations in North America and Europe.
It will also support continued R&D to develop new ways enterprises can transform their core business processes using computer vision and AR. Scandit’s global customers include 7-Eleven, Alaska Airlines, Carrefour, DPD, FedEx, Instacart, Johns Hopkins Hospital, La Poste, Levi Strauss & Co, Mount Sinai Hospital and Toyota, and perform tens of billions of scans every year on over 100 million active devices.
Scandit is a computer vision and machine learning platform combining barcode scanning, text recognition (OCR), object recognition and augmented reality (AR) for any camera-equipped smart device - from familiar smartphones to drones, wearables and robots. The software is unmatched in terms of speed, accuracy, and the ability to scan in bad light, at any angle and with damaged labels.
Scandit enables companies to accelerate their digital transformation by blending the physical world with relevant digital information. Organisations in retail, transport and logistics and manufacturing use Scandit’s computer vision technology to create and power mobile apps or websites for mobile shopping, self checkout, inventory management, proof of delivery, asset tracking and maintenance.
In healthcare, Scandit supports digital health, with healthcare workers using familiar smartphones to scan patient IDs, samples, medication and supplies. Scandit’s solutions help take time and cost out of operations in any industry, empowering employees and improving customer engagement and satisfaction.
The need for social distancing post COVID-19 has accelerated demand for mobile computer vision on personal smart devices, as companies seek to create a safer contactless environment for their employees and customers. Retailers and transport and logistics companies are also discovering that they can scale up faster to meet the soaring demand for Click and Collect and the millions of extra home deliveries, by providing workers with scanning apps on BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) or COPE (Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled) smart devices. Scandit is helping its customers rapidly ramp up these services.
"Scandit's platform puts an enterprise-grade scanning solution in the pocket of every employee and customer without requiring legacy hardware," said Ben Kortlang, General Partner at G2VP.
"This bridge between the physical and digital worlds will be increasingly critical as the world accelerates its shift to online purchasing and delivery, distributed supply chains and cashierless retail."
“COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the need for rapid digital transformation in these uncertain times, and the need to blend the physical and digital plays a crucial role,” said Samuel Mueller, CEO of Scandit.
“The smartphone is a personal tool that can be deployed with powerful computer vision software to seamlessly interact with everyday objects and display real time insights with AR-overlays. Our new funding makes it possible for us to help even more enterprises to quickly adapt to the new demand for ‘contactless business’, and be better positioned to succeed, whatever the new normal is.”