Anyline, a leading startup in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) using AI for text recognition, has raised €10.7 million in Series A funding. The Austrian startup, which is already working with big names like Toyota, IBM, Canon, the UN and PepsiCo, will use the funds to open its first US office in Boston.
Founded in Vienna in 2013, Anyline has established itself as the market leader in mobile text recognition. Using innovative AI approaches, Anyline enables any mobile device to process written characters in real time, even when offline. It’s not only more accurate than manual data entry, but also works 20 times faster.
Businesses are using Anyline technology to scan and collect analogue information, such as identity documents, serial numbers and utility meters using any standard mobile device. This brings significant savings in terms of time and resources and improves data-quality for businesses by eliminating manual data entry.
Recognising Anyline’s place at the forefront of innovation in the logistics sector, the company was named a Gartner ‘Cool Vendor’ in supply chain execution in 2018. In particular, Gartner praised Anyline for its proven ability to increase workforce agility, improve data accuracy and quality across the supply chain, and support the digitization of SCE at every stage.
Leading the round is Project A, the Berlin-based Operational VC, supported by Anyline’s existing investors, including Johann ‘Hansi’ Hansmann, Senovo and the Gernot Langes-Swarovski Foundation.
This new capital will primarily be used to double the headcount within Anyline, and to open its first US headquarters in Boston in early 2020. This enables Anyline to bring innovative mobile OCR solutions to new international markets and industries, including smart manufacturing, KYC services and fintech.
“As businesses move to an increasingly virtual world, it is vital they have access to advanced technologies that enable them to digitise previously analog mediums. We are proud to say European-born technology is helping businesses across the world to reduce the errors, inefficiencies and frustrations that come with manual input. By becoming the market leader in mobile OCR, Anyline plans to be the technology partner businesses need to meet these challenges on the horizon”, says Lukas Kinigadner, CEO and co-founder of Anyline.
Uwe Horstmann, a partner with the lead funder Project A says: “Anyline offers a superior solution in the computer vision business, valuable to both the public sector and private customers. Apart from their reliable state-of-the-art technology, our decision to invest in Anyline is very much based on their amazing team. We are proud and happy to support Anyline financially as well as with our operational services.”
To further enable expansion, the firm has established the Anyline Inc. in the US, and has hired Bryan Boatner, the former Global Sales Director of Cognex Corporation, as the company’s new VP of Sales and Business Development.
Boatner says, “I am very excited to be joining Anyline, one of the most exciting tech ‘scaleups’ in Europe today as it enters the US market. From my experience in machine and computer vision, I see huge growth potential for Anyline across many different industries, from law enforcement to retail, smart factories and transport, to name only a few. We will be moving fast to build and establish our new US team in 2020.”
