ProGlove raised 36 million EUR investment from global growth equity firm Summit Partners. The company plans to leverage this funding to expand its international footprint and support its mission to connect the human workforce with the industrial Internet of Things (IoT).
“Organizations seeking to maintain a competitive edge in the era of Industry 4.0 must rethink and reinvent the way in which humans and machines interact. Wearable devices acknowledge the importance of enabling a smarter, more effective worker in the industrial IoT environment,” said Andreas Koenig, CEO of ProGlove. “Industrial wearables define the future of assembly, production and logistics processes. Our smart wearables are designed to function as a natural extension of the workers’ tools, strengthening the role of the human in today’s automated world.”
Founded in 2014, ProGlove offers a scanner glove designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of scanning processes used across the manufacturing, logistics, transportation and ecommerce/retail sectors. ProGlove’s products are integrated into the factory and warehouse floor processes at some of the world’s most renowned brands including Audi, BMW, Bosch, Daimler, DHL and Lufthansa Technik. The company’s smart glove provides an ergonomic, hands-free barcode scanning solution that helps workers increase productivity and optimize workflow. While traditional handheld scanners tend to be unwieldy and bulky, the small form factor, lightweight, wearable design of ProGlove’s scanner unit allows users to reduce scanning time by up to 4 seconds per scan.
ProGlove got its start after earning recognition in Intel’s 2014 “Make it Wearable” challenge. Following an initial product development phase, ProGlove began commercializing its scanner glove in 2016. Last year the company joined our pitch competition at IFA Berlin.