Please welcome Augmentir, AI software driving forward manufacturing’s frontline
By: Lerer Hippeau
Tags: Startup, Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented, Venture Capital

Meet Augmentir, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.

HQ: Horsham, PA

Cofounders: Russ Fadel, John Canosa, Phil Huber and Lawrence Fan

The problem: The forces powering manufacturing in the U.S. are rapidly evolving. Emerging technologies such as computer vision and robot picking systems arm manufacturers with efficient, cutting-edge processing tools. However, their employee systems lag behind, contributing to turnover, burnout, and poor training. Those outdated programs, coupled with demographic shifts, have created a significant chasm between nearly 3 million unfilled positions and the supply of skilled labor.

Augmentir’s solution: Augmentir is the first AI-driven platform designed to power on-the-job learning and enhance productivity for manufacturing’s frontline. Its platform combines enterprise augmented reality with artificial intelligence and machine learning to aid and support workflows with digital instructions — keeping production moving forward for companies across manufacturing, oil and gas, mining and more.

Origin story: The founding team has deep technical knowledge and wide-ranging experience developing innovative solutions for the evolving industrial sector. Russ Fadel (CEO), John Canosa (CTO), Phil Huber (VP of Product), and Lawrence Fan (Chief Architect) have collectively founded and launched industrial software companies including Wonderware, Lighthammer and ThingWorx before coming together to create Augmentir.

Why we’re betting on it: In spite of the need, complex workflows, integration, and always-on processes in manufacturing can make investing in a new software solution high-risk. Augmentir allows manufacturers to close the knowledge gap through dead-simple workflow instructions, synchronous video assistance and real-time feedback loops to immediately identify areas of inefficiency and quantify improvements. Given the team’s track record of success in industrial software, we are excited to support Augmentir in its mission to empower the industry’s frontline workforce using this advanced technology.

Available across hardware devices, Augmentir allows any manufacturer — regardless of platform — to quickly spot gaps in their workflows and address them. With the enterprise AR software space expected to reach $12 billion by 2021, we’re betting on Augmentir as the easy-to-use, data-centric solution that will unlock value in this market and support workers and manufacturers alike.

Our take: Across industries, we’ve seen the repeated success of pairing strong technology and deep industry expertise with consumer-friendly interfaces in the enterprise market. Augmentir not only brings an easy on-boarding and integration process to this area, but it also couples that with strong AI to drive insights from day one. Our second bet in industrial software after Plus One Robotics, we’re excited to see that proven approach continue to play out the manufacturing industry.

Learn about careers at Augmentir.

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