Zurich-based Scandit, the global leader in smart data capture, has just received over €130 million and with it picks up the coveted unicorn status. The oversubscribed funding round was led by Warburg Pincus with strong participation from Scandit’s existing shareholder base, including Atomico, Forestay Capital, G2VP, GV, Kreos, NGP Capital, Schneider Electric, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV and Swisscom Ventures.
Founded in 2009, the Swiss startup is pioneering the use of smart data to give ‘superpowers’ to workers, customers and businesses with impressive speed, accuracy and intelligence. The Scandit Smart Data Capture platform enables smart devices, such as smartphones, drones, digital eyewear and robots to capture data from barcodes, text, IDs and objects to automate and provide insights for end-to-end processes.
Scandit accurately scans data up to three times faster than dedicated scanners in challenging light or at angles, on damaged labels, across multiple codes, with any smart device – enabling innovation that delivers significant cost savings, increases employee retention and customer loyalty.
Since its Series C funding round in May 2020, the business has more than doubled its annual recurring revenue and now has over 1700 global customers including American Eagle Outfitters, Carrefour, FedEx, Levi’s Strauss & Co., Yamato Transport and Sephora.
Flavio Porciani, Managing Director at Warburg Pincus, said: “Scandit’s smart data capture technology is transforming the way businesses operate and interact with their customers in an increasingly digital world and is strongly aligned with some of the biggest secular trends of our time, including enablement of the digital workforce and supply chain visibility.”
Scandit has strengthened its leadership position in its core verticals – retail, transportation and logistics, healthcare and manufacturing – and today is trusted by three of the top five global courier companies and eight of the top ten US grocers. During the pandemic, Scandit has also been providing data capture services to national health organizations such as the NHS in the UK to support Covid-19 programs and initiatives.
As we emerge from the pandemic, expectations from employees and customers continue to increase, with increased pressure on businesses worldwide to digitise. Enterprises have to address ongoing changing workforce dynamics to tackle ongoing labour shortages, the rise of gig economy workers, and empower existing employees. Meanwhile, customers increasingly seek contactless experiences, while businesses need to automate processes, gain new intelligence and increase efficiencies to meet these new needs.
Traditional data capture tools, such as those enabled with general-purpose scanners, have been unable to meet such requirements. Whether to digitally enable the mobile workforce or to enhance supply chain visibility, omnichannel fulfilment, store operations efficiency or asset tracking and maintenance – this is where Scandit has been able to enter the market and skyrocket.
Samuel Mueller, CEO at Scandit, commented: “By following our original vision of using the camera on smart devices to interact with physical items, we are transforming the daily lives of customers, employees and businesses to enable enhanced, personalized experiences and achieve their digital transformation ambitions. The new funding will allow us to help more businesses globally and to better empower an evolving mobile workforce, meet new customer expectations and deliver increasingly automated operations. We are thrilled to have Warburg Pincus as our partner on the next phase of our growth journey. They bring a deep understanding of our business and software growth investing and a long track record of backing winning businesses.”
This new funding for the latest European unicorn will be used to further expand its global footprint and team, with a particular focus on the APAC region. Since 2020, the globally distributed team has increased by 85% with plans to grow by another 50% by the end of 2022.
The investment will also be used to continue to drive expansion and innovation in core verticals, as well as to accelerate Scandit’s R&D to advance enterprises’ core business processes with an increased emphasis on AI/ML capabilities and autonomous data capture methods. Scandit Smart Data Capture platform will further augment the intelligence and decision-making of users leading to faster, more accurate and automated outcomes whether on a smartphone, wearables or via robots.
