Global Shaper 2009: Scandit, Disrupting barcode scanning with smartphones
29.11.2017
This summer we asked you to vote for your favorite of our supported startups from the past 10 years: those that you felt had the power to change the world. We announced our Global Shapers at our 10 year anniversary event on 29th November and will update you with them on our website throughout December.
.png) Scandit
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DISRUPT BARCODE SCANNING WITH SIMPLE SMARTPHONES
Over the past few years, Swiss startups have established a solid reputation worldwide in IT technologies. One of these startups is the Zurich based company Scandit, which has found a disruptive way to replace barcode scanners with smart mobile apps and devices (e.g. smartphones or tablets), enabling the company to compete against major market players such as Motorola, Honeywell International or Zebra Technologies.
With globalization and the increasing digitalization of trading worldwide, barcode scanning has become a critical backbone of pretty much all commercial activities today. In recent years, barcode scanning has been increasingly adopted across various product or service industries such as logistics, security, identification, retail, self-check in or check out, healthcare and transportation. Every day, more than 100 billion barcode scanning operations are processed in retail stores worldwide. The global barcode scanning market is predicted to grow from $5.2bn in 2017 to $6.5bn by 2020, and these numbers only represent the “hardware” (or device) side of things: in the field of scanning software apps, along with mobile image recognition, where Scandit is also active, even greater market opportunities can be addressed.
TRANSFORM BUSINESSES ACROSS THE WORLD
Although barcode scanning is used at a larger scale by businesses today, companies still make use of dedicated barcode scanners and expensive lifetime support packages to read and process data. The idea of Scandit, which emerged from a group of PhD graduates and former researchers from ETH Zurich, MIT and IBM Research in 2008, was simple enough: instead of using an expensive proprietary scanner, use a smartphone camera to capture barcodes which can then be decoded using specially developed software embedded in an app. The technology has reached incredible levels of accuracy and affordability with the potential to undercut competition. For example, a mobile device equipped with Scandit’s software can scan a barcode from over two meters away, even in low light; or scan multiple barcodes at once, something which traditional dedicated barcode scanners cannot do.
Beyond revolutionizing barcode scanning, Scandit’s technology has the potential to transform customers’ business processes entirely. Through a new application, called Keyboard Wedge, retail or logistics companies can use Scandit’s barcode scanning function to deliver data to their existing data management system (e.g. ERP, WMS or POS). No further modifications, development or integration costs are implied. To date, Scandit has enabled the transformation of thousands of businesses worldwide such as Cardinal Health, Coop, Louis Vuitton, NASA, or Verizon Wireless. For the Swiss supermarket giant Coop Group in particular, Scandit has enabled self-scanning and checkout of its clients’ purchases. Coop has also deployed Scandit’s solutions internally for stock and order management as well as intralogistics purposes.
FUNDS FOR FURTHER GLOBAL EXPANSION
Since the initial business was founded in 2009, Scandit has been stepping up efforts to become a truly global company which counts over 75 employees today. Early in 2017, Scandit raised $7.5m in Series A (in addition to $5.5m in 2014) to expand its international footprint and open new sales offices across Europe and the US. Scandit CEO, Samuel Müller, could also count on the support of Venture Kick from the very beginning to empower the entire organization: “Venture Kick provided critical support to help us validate our initial product offering, refine our business plan and get Scandit off the ground”.
See what people are saying on Twitter using the hashtags #10YVentureKick for our anniversary and #VentureKickGS for our Global Shapers
Over the past few years, Swiss startups have established a solid reputation worldwide in IT technologies. One of these startups is the Zurich based company Scandit, which has found a disruptive way to replace barcode scanners with smart mobile apps and devices (e.g. smartphones or tablets), enabling the company to compete against major market players such as Motorola, Honeywell International or Zebra Technologies.
With globalization and the increasing digitalization of trading worldwide, barcode scanning has become a critical backbone of pretty much all commercial activities today. In recent years, barcode scanning has been increasingly adopted across various product or service industries such as logistics, security, identification, retail, self-check in or check out, healthcare and transportation. Every day, more than 100 billion barcode scanning operations are processed in retail stores worldwide. The global barcode scanning market is predicted to grow from $5.2bn in 2017 to $6.5bn by 2020, and these numbers only represent the “hardware” (or device) side of things: in the field of scanning software apps, along with mobile image recognition, where Scandit is also active, even greater market opportunities can be addressed.
TRANSFORM BUSINESSES ACROSS THE WORLD
Although barcode scanning is used at a larger scale by businesses today, companies still make use of dedicated barcode scanners and expensive lifetime support packages to read and process data. The idea of Scandit, which emerged from a group of PhD graduates and former researchers from ETH Zurich, MIT and IBM Research in 2008, was simple enough: instead of using an expensive proprietary scanner, use a smartphone camera to capture barcodes which can then be decoded using specially developed software embedded in an app. The technology has reached incredible levels of accuracy and affordability with the potential to undercut competition. For example, a mobile device equipped with Scandit’s software can scan a barcode from over two meters away, even in low light; or scan multiple barcodes at once, something which traditional dedicated barcode scanners cannot do.
Beyond revolutionizing barcode scanning, Scandit’s technology has the potential to transform customers’ business processes entirely. Through a new application, called Keyboard Wedge, retail or logistics companies can use Scandit’s barcode scanning function to deliver data to their existing data management system (e.g. ERP, WMS or POS). No further modifications, development or integration costs are implied. To date, Scandit has enabled the transformation of thousands of businesses worldwide such as Cardinal Health, Coop, Louis Vuitton, NASA, or Verizon Wireless. For the Swiss supermarket giant Coop Group in particular, Scandit has enabled self-scanning and checkout of its clients’ purchases. Coop has also deployed Scandit’s solutions internally for stock and order management as well as intralogistics purposes.
FUNDS FOR FURTHER GLOBAL EXPANSION
Since the initial business was founded in 2009, Scandit has been stepping up efforts to become a truly global company which counts over 75 employees today. Early in 2017, Scandit raised $7.5m in Series A (in addition to $5.5m in 2014) to expand its international footprint and open new sales offices across Europe and the US. Scandit CEO, Samuel Müller, could also count on the support of Venture Kick from the very beginning to empower the entire organization: “Venture Kick provided critical support to help us validate our initial product offering, refine our business plan and get Scandit off the ground”.
See what people are saying on Twitter using the hashtags #10YVentureKick for our anniversary and #VentureKickGS for our Global Shapers