AI-powered inventory platform AUTIT has raised a $2.7 million seed round co-led by San Francisco’s Zetta Venture Partners and Boston-based Glasswing Ventures. “We will use these resources to build out the team with technical and sales personnel to continue progress on our platform and customer acquisition,” CEO Paul J. Noble tells Hypepotamus.
The startup is tackling the $100 million wasted working capital that your average Fortune 500 manufacturer has tied up in excess parts. This excess is often because inventory is still tallied manually over decentralized databases, instead of accessible in one central database.
The Atlanta-based startup helps manufacturing plants run leaner operations and avoid costly downtime by analyzing their parts inventory to reduce it to the optimal level.
Founded in 2016, Noble and his team started AUTIT as a sales engagement platform for distributors and suppliers, but quickly realized that the average target client wasn’t tech-enabled enough to even use the product. In 2017, they pivoted to serve the other side of the supply chain — large manufacturers.
Noble told Hypepotamus that, on average, AUTIT can reduce a manufacturer’s inventory by 30 percent in year one.
Though they had already closed their seed round, the company presented on-stage at this year’s Venture Atlanta, the Southeast’s largest venture investor conference, to reach more prospective investors and strategic partners.
“We had an amazing experience presenting at Venture Atlanta,” Noble says. “It served as a platform to share our vision throughout Southeast ecosystem and beyond in the venture community, as well as show our enthusiasm and commitment to building a great business in Atlanta.”
Following the seed round, Noble plans to focus on acquiring more customers and doubling his team, currently three full-time employees including CTO J.R. Lomas and COO George Tang.
