Round led by GlassWing Ventures and Differential Ventures
SEATTLE, Wash., March 16, 2022 – Retrocausal, a growing leader in AI-driven quality assurance systems for manufacturing professionals, today announced it has secured $3.4 Million in new funding. The round was led by Glasswing Ventures and Differential Ventures, along with new major investors, Argon Ventures, Ascend Ventures Vietnam, and Hypertherm Ventures. Retrocausal will use the funding to further build out its team and extend the company’s global growth and momentum in the market.
Retrocausal’s Pathfinder platform supports discrete manufacturers’ measurable improvements in quality, efficiency, and first-time yield by decreasing manual assembly errors. “By providing real-time guidance to operators, we help manufacturers avoid mistakes during the build process by 83% and help increase their bottom line,” said Dr. Zeeshan Zia co-founder, and CEO of Retrocausal.
The Pathfinder platform can be deployed in a matter of days by anyone on a manufacturing operations team, enabling organizations to see a near-immediate return on investment. The platform’s automation engine builds a production-ready deep learning model in one day or less and with minimal training data. This highly accurate model gives manufacturers a real-time analysis of the manufacturing floor, historical data, and a wealth of build process analytics while protecting operator privacy with options selected during deployment.
Retrocausal systems have been deployed by a number of major manufacturers and small-to-midsize assembly operations. Retrocausal recently partnered with Honda Innovations, Inc. for a proof-of-concept deployment through the Honda Xcelerator program.
“Honda Innovations key open innovation program, Honda Xcelerator, engages innovators of all kinds, with a particular focus on breakthrough technologies,” said Nick Sugimoto, CEO, Honda Innovations, Inc. “The Retrocausal proof-of-concept demonstrated great promise for quality of manufacturing assembly, where Honda is continuously innovating, in addition to overall efficiency.”
Until now, manufacturing organizations had to evaluate the quality of products coming off the line at designated workstations or, in some cases, not until the end of the build process. With the Retrocausal Pathfinder platform, organizations can now – in real-time at the edge – alert an operator when a mistake is made in a standard operating procedure. Mistakes can be resolved right then and there before the product moves to the next stage of the build.
Retrocausal has also reached an agreement with Siemens Digital Industries Software on a funded project. The scope of the project is to “close the loop” between the manufacturing design phase and the manufacturing execution phase for human-centric operations.
“Siemens Digital Industries Software is enthusiastic about the collaboration with Retrocausal,” said Mohsen Rezayat, chief solutions architect, Siemens Digital Industries Software. “This agreement is the first step in the development of an integrated solution that enables us to provide added value to our mutual customers.”
The Pathfinder platform combines purpose-built software with any GPU-enabled Windows computer and off-the-shelf webcam, providing the latest advancements in computer vision to increase the quality of products coming off the manufacturing floor. In addition, operator privacy is enabled by the narrow camera field of view required for many assembly operations, as well as software image blurring and encryption options.
“We’re excited by our continued growth and the value our customers, partners, and investors find in the Pathfinder platform,” said Dr. Zia. “Our goal at Retrocausal is to support companies and workers as they take on increasingly complex manufacturing work, combining the precision of software with the capabilities of people.”
“Dr. Zeeshan Zia and the Retrocausal team have revolutionized a highly manual process using AI and deep learning,” said Kleida Martiro, Principal at Glasswing Ventures. “Retrocausal’s game-changing platform enables operators to resolve mistakes in real-time before a product goes to the next build stage improving first-time yields, reducing manual assembly-related quality issues and operator training. We are excited to support this disruptive company and to partner with Differential Ventures in the next chapter of Retrocausal’s expansion.”
About Retrocausal, Inc.
Retrocausal delivers intelligence augmentation solutions that help manufacturing workers avoid assembly mistakes, train better, and improve the processes they drive. Retrocausal is a trusted solution provider by the most prominent manufacturers and solution providers in the United States, Japan, and South America.
Retrocausal’s Pathfinder platform uses AI to analyze the tasks performed on the manufacturer’s assembly line in real-time, offering audible and visual alerts when mistakes happen to ensure operators complete builds correctly before the next step in the process. In addition, Retrocausal’s platform continuously performs time studies on assembly processes to help businesses accelerate Kaizen events. Visit Retrocausal at https://www.retrocausal.ai
About Glasswing Ventures
Glasswing Ventures is a leading early-stage venture capital firm focused on revolutionary AI and frontier tech companies applied to B2B enterprise and cybersecurity markets. The firm was founded by visionary partners with decades of experience in these markets, a disciplined investment approach, and a strong track record of industry-leading returns. Glasswing leverages its deep domain expertise and world-leading advisory councils to invest in exceptional founders who transform markets and revolutionize industries. Learn more at https://glasswing.vc/
About Differential Ventures
Differential Ventures is a seed-stage VC fund that invests in B2B data-oriented technology solutions. Unlike generalist VCs, Differential makes investment decisions based on decades of experience as data scientists, operations experts, and entrepreneurs. They look for companies that have a unique advantage in data and machine intelligence across enterprise technology, fintech, and cybersecurity. Their portfolio companies are pioneers in technology and trailblazers in automation. Some of their companies are developing ways to safeguard consumer data, put machine learning in the hands of non-programmers, or remove unconscious bias from hiring. They’re forging new paths, and Differential is right there, rolling up their sleeves and working beside them. For more information, visit: https://www.differential.vc/
