Scandit is the leader in smart data capture, giving superpowers to workers, customers, and businesses by providing actionable insights and automating end-to-end processes. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Scandit co-founder and CEO Samuel Mueller to learn more about the company.
Samuel Mueller’s Background
What is Samuel Mueller’s background? Mueller said:
“My co-founders and I started Scandit back in 2009 after meeting at ETH Zurich during our post-graduate studies. Since then, we’ve grown into a global software company that helps businesses across industries like retail, transportation and manufacturing by giving their frontline workers smart data capture solutions. These help automate workflows and deliver actionable insights to increase operational efficiency and improve customer experiences.”
“I hold a PhD from ETH Zurich and two master’s degrees in Computer Science and Financial Economics, respectively, from the University of Zurich. Prior to Scandit, I worked as a management consultant and project leader for Swiss Airlines and Swiss Re as well as a researcher at the IBM Zurich Research Lab.”
Formation Of Scandit
How did the idea for the company come together? Mueller shared:
“From establishing better in-store customer service and faster airport check-ins, to delivering the right parcel on time, to reducing repetitive tasks in the warehouse, we ultimately wanted to make consumers’ and frontline workers’ lives easier. We realized we could effectively extend the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm to everyday objects by developing a highly specialized computer vision platform for camera-equipped smart devices with the aim of blending the physical and digital worlds.”
“We saw innovations in smartphones including improved cameras and more processing power, which inspired us to rethink traditional data capture tools. With our early prototypes and algorithms, we realized we could do something new: deliver enterprise-level performance on everyday devices and revolutionize the Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) industry.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Mueller explained:
“Our Smart Data Capture Platform is powered by our core data capture capabilities: barcode scanning, ID scanning, and optical character recognition (OCR). Our barcode scanning technology turns smart devices into high-performance data capture tools that can scan one or multiple barcodes at once, and our ID scanning software extracts and verifies data from identity documents such as ID cards, passports or drivers’ licenses in a faster and more reliable manner than traditional manual ID checks. Our OCR software combines with other capabilities like barcode scanning to strengthen data capture solutions in ID scanning, label scanning and shelf management such as reading price labels on grocery store shelves.”
“Additionally, we have our pre-built components. SparkScan enables rapid, accurate and ergonomic high-volume barcode scanning, while MatrixScan Count and MatrixScan Find help workers quickly count and locate inventory using augmented reality (AR) overlays. We also recently launched ID Bolt, which seamlessly integrates into any website and allows users to scan their identity documentation and auto-populate their required information for travel bookings, online check-ins, rental pickups, and more in seconds.”
“Finally, we have our shelf intelligence solution – ShelfView. It provides a hybrid data capture approach using smart devices and fixed cameras to give retailers increased visibility into core store operation tasks such as pricing and promotion execution, on-shelf availability and planogram compliance, with increased efficiency and automation.”
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Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Mueller noted:
“During our research careers, some of us initially focused on RFID technology to solve the issues we were seeing on the frontlines, but we quickly determined it wasn’t an easily deployable, cost-effective or standardized solution for companies at the time. As a result, we founded Scandit to leverage the technical advances of smartphone cameras and their ability to connect to familiar objects by reading a barcode, text, ID or the object itself. Since people were rapidly adopting smartphones during the time of our establishment, we saw them as a great opportunity for growth.”
“At first, our barcode decoding algorithms struggled with early smartphone camera limitations, including a high error rate and difficulties with catalogs larger than 10,000 items. We addressed these issues by developing advanced algorithms capable of reading barcodes from blurry images without the need for traditional aiming mechanisms. Later on, we went beyond the traditional sequential scanning metaphor, which led to the creation of MatrixScan, which can scan multiple barcodes simultaneously. Overcoming these hurdles allowed us to not only enhance our technology, but to also secure key customers, help them fundamentally transform core business workflows with our solutions and establish a strong foundation as a leader in smart data capture.”
“Today, our smart data capture capabilities have evolved from single barcode scanning to AI-powered software combining object recognition, text recognition and other advanced computer vision technologies.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Mueller cited:
“Over the past 15 years, we’ve hit some exciting milestones. Early on, we won various entrepreneurship prizes (such as Venture Kick), which helped us build out our initial offering and win our first customers. In 2014, we raised $5.5 million in a pre-Series A round, followed by $7.5 million in 2017 from leading European VC fund Atomico, and another $30 million in 2018 from Google Ventures.”
“During the pandemic, our data capture solutions became essential to boosting worker productivity, improving our clients’ customer engagement and streamlining last-mile delivery as many companies faced workforce shortages and supply chain issues. In 2020, we received $80 million in Series C funding led by G2VP, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm of former Kleiner Perkins partners. By 2022, Scandit gained unicorn status following $150 million in Series D funding from Warburg Pincus.”
“Our most recent milestone was our acquisition of Polish image recognition and AI software company MarketLab. Their expertise in fixed camera solutions complements our existing ShelfView mobile capture approach, which will enable us to provide a hybrid data capture shelf intelligence solution for retailers.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Mueller about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“We have a customer base of various industry leaders, such as Shipt, Instacart, Levi’s Strauss, 7-11, FedEx, Sephora, Alaska Airlines, and Cardinal Health. One of our most recent success stories has been with VF Corporation, an apparel, footwear, and accessories company that works with top brands such as Vans, The North Face, Timberland and Dickies.”
“VF Corporation faced significant challenges with inventory management during the pandemic, leading to order cancellations and customer dissatisfaction. The reliance on outdated scanning devices resulted in inaccuracies, bottlenecks, and slow processes. To address these issues, VF Corporation adopted Scandit Smart Data Capture, replacing legacy scanners with smartphones and a new application. Our solution improved omnichannel inventory accuracy to 100% and saved store associates up to 60% of their time on tedious, scan-heavy tasks. Scandit’s real-time data access helped VF Corporation enhance omnichannel operations, increase revenue, and improve both customer experiences and operational efficiency.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Mueller concluded:
“We own more than 35 issued patents spread over more than 20 countries, and our innovative and secure technologies are offering help to frontline workers where they need it most. Our solutions have evolved from barcode scanning to more advanced smart data capture solutions including multi-scanning, augmented reality overlays to display information to users, the ability to scan various types of IDs and detect those that are fake, plus our AI-powered shelf intelligence solution. We make scanning smarter and transform processes by shifting tedious tasks away from frontline workers. For example, with MatrixScan Count, we enable error-free counting tasks by scanning multiple items simultaneously and providing intuitive real-time feedback if any were missed. Increasingly, we adopt multi-modal data capture, such as reading a barcode and text in parallel, to provide complete and accurate information in an efficient manner.”
“In one of our recent surveys on the top tech pains and gains for frontline workers, we found that when it comes to improving scanning tasks, half (50%) of respondents want features that enable scanning in challenging conditions, while 45% want faster scanning capabilities for tasks such as inventory management and price checks, especially in volume-intensive workflows like grocery stores. To combat these pains, our technology accurately scans in any environment from bad lighting to damaged labels and challenging angles, in addition to being intuitive and easy to use. Scandit has also proven to speed up scanning workflows by a factor of 5 on any smart device. This has delivered significant cost savings and increased employee retention and consumer satisfaction for our customers. Additionally, our robust customer support team is there for our customers every step of the way, from evaluation to operation, ensuring enterprises reap all the benefits of smart data capture in the long term.”
