Enterprise mobility and barcode scanner startup Scandit raises $30 million Series B to bring IoT to everyday objects

Scandit, a Zurich, Switzerland-based enterprise mobility and barcode scanner startup, has raised $30 million in series B to bring Internet of Things (IoT) to everyday objects and accelerate global expansion and further develop its mobile computer vision platform to support advanced capabilities across any camera-equipped device. The funding was led by Alphabet’s venture capital (VC) arm GV, with participation from NGP Capital (formerly known as Nokia Growth Partners) and existing investor Atomico, among others.

Founded in 2009 by a group of Ph.D. graduates from MIT, IBM Research, and ETH Zurich: Christian Floerkemeier, Christof Roduner, and Samuel Mueller. Scandit develops software for mobile enterprise apps for barcode scanning, text and objects recognition, and delivering real-time insights through AR. Scandit helps business users and consumers to augment the physical world with relevant digital information in real time through barcodes, images, and other visual identifiers captured with smart devices such as smartphones, wearables, drones, and robots.

Over the years the company has evolved into a world-class team of mobile image processing, cloud-computing, and “Internet of Things” experts from around the globe. It has developed a culture of thought leadership and innovation that perpetually aims to break new ground in the mobile AIDC space. Many of the world’s most innovative and successful companies are already reaping the benefits of Scandit’s next-generation mobile data capture platform.

“Scandit delivers high performance across different smartphones by combining deep learning and machine learning with more traditional computer vision heuristics, creating an entirely new approach to computer vision applications for the enterprise. Combined with the technical strength of the founding team, Scandit’s mobile data capture platform is well-positioned to shape how enterprises and consumers interact with everyday objects and augmented reality,” said Tom Hulme, General Partner at GV.

Companies in industries such as retail, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare use Scandit’s technology to create and power mobile apps for crucial enterprise workflows like mobile point of sale, mobile shopping, self-checkout, inventory management, and proof of delivery. Over recent years, the digital transformation opportunities offered by Scandit’s mobile computer vision technology platform have resulted in a consistent doubling of growth and hundreds of leading brands as clients, including Sephora, Louis Vuitton, DHL, and Levi Strauss & Co.

“We’re thrilled to have GV and NGP Capital as partners. Both have a deep understanding of the opportunities that exist for advanced mobile computer vision,” said Samuel Mueller, CEO of Scandit. “This new funding will enable us to keep up our rapid growth, but also, looking at the bigger picture, it’s going to increase the overall adoption of mobile computer vision and augmented reality in the enterprise, which will help to streamline operations and lead to cost savings.”

“The Scandit team has demonstrated great execution, ingenuity, and persistence since founding the company. As a team of world-class entrepreneurs, we are very proud to back Scandit in the next phase of their journey,” said Bo Ilsoe, Partner at NGP Capital.

Scandit has gone far beyond barcodes, smartphones, and tablets by enabling the capturing and decoding of text, objects, and other visual identifiers using wearables, drones, robots, or stationary cameras. In doing so, Scandit extends the Internet of Things to everyday objects by allowing them to be identified, tracked, and superimposed with relevant digital information without requiring them to have a computer chip embedded or be connected online.

Not only does Scandit reinvent how you scan and what you scan, but it also opens new possibilities for filtering what’s been scanned. This makes it possible to bring the online experience into the real world so you can see beyond objects and get valuable information to help make smarter decisions.

For example, retail associates can use Scandit’s mobile MatrixScan solution to scan an entire shelf at once and see real-time inventory data on the display via augmented reality overlay; transportation and logistics enterprises can read multiple packages in a single scan and have a specific package with special instructions highlighted on the screen; and consumers can scan a shelf at a grocery store and quickly identify items that are vegan or lactose-free. Scandit is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, and is also represented in San Francisco, Boston, London and Warsaw.