One of the country’s largest meat processors is helping fund Iterate Labs, the developer of an artificial intelligence-based platform that uses wearable sensor technology to monitor employees’ movements to improve workforce safety and productivity.
With just a pair of small wearables worn by each operator, Iterate Labs said this technology automatically identifies opportunities to improve productivity and reduce repetitive motion safety risks, a release said.
Their goal? To maximize workforce productivity, operations and safety through artificial intelligence (AI), digitized human motion and sensor inputs. On Thursday, Iterate Labs announced they have raised their $1-million seed round of funding led by Monozukuri Ventures, a press release said. Tyson Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tyson Foods, is also among the investors providing seed funding.
This investment will support scaling of current customers, customer acquisition and investment in sales and engineering resources to support growth.
“At Tyson Ventures, we are continually exploring new areas of technology and artificial intelligence that can improve the health and well-being of our team members,” Rahul Ray, Director of Tyson Ventures, said in a release. “We believe Iterate Labs’ Industrial IOT platform could be a game changer driving real-time visibility, safety, and productivity for the North American manufacturing workforce.”
Iterate Labs is focused on improving the interaction between the worker and their environment, making the worker more effective, safer and happier along the way, the company said in a release.
“We have built a connected worker platform to date that aligns each division within an industrial facility around the most important resource for these facilities, their workforce. Over the past several years our platforms have enabled safety, operations, HR, training, and automation teams to work together and to optimize the sustainability of their workforce,” Apoorva Kiran, CTO and co-founder of Iterate Labs, said in a release.
Despite the challenging business environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Iterate Labs has experienced growth in its customer base.
“We are beyond excited to have such well-established investors in the manufacturing space join our round. As one of the world’s largest food companies, Tyson Foods’ strong support for their workforce and continued focus on innovation will help us more effectively solve the needs of our customers,” Jason Guss, CEO and Co-founder of Iterate Labs, said in a release.
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