SAN JOSE, Calif., June 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Squint, the technology platform that uses augmented reality (AR) to optimize factory procedures and empower operators, today announced $6 million in combined seed and pre-seed funding from Arc, Sequoia Capital’s pre-seed and seed-stage catalyst, and Menlo Ventures’ venture studio Menlo Labs, along with several angel investors.
Squint uses AR to power an intuitive mobile platform for factory operators who need dynamic, contextual help mapped to the world around them. The Squint platform brings the shop floor binder – full of instructions – to life, providing operators with an interactive experience that is both engaging and effective, while increasing learning speed and knowledge retention. With these capabilities, Squint enables organizations to digitize standard operating procedures using just a mobile phone, with no hassle — not even an IT team – making everyday tasks like training, operation, and maintenance faster and safer.
The flexibility of the Squint platform is a selling point for customers. Squint offers the only AR solution that is truly “open world,” meaning that content can be created anywhere, on the spot, without needing a QR code or a 3D model to detect objects and orient itself. Implementation with Squint is simple and self-serve, offering the fastest time-to-value in the manufacturing technology sector.
Squint's roster of customers, including global brands like Siemens and The Volvo Group, speaks to the value of their solution. Early customers report an 86% decrease in training time for new operators. Rachel Wood, the Learning & Development Site Lead at Siemens Spartanburg, explains, “We see Squint completely transforming our training process on the factory floor. It enables our workforce to learn with immersive spatial guides that boost productivity and, most importantly, encourage safety.”
Squint was founded in 2021 by CEO Devin Bhushan, who led AR products at Splunk and built mobile apps at Yahoo Sports and Flurry. “I first met Devin at Yahoo, and we also worked together at Splunk; he’s always stood out as an exceptional engineer with a great eye for design,” said Tim Tully, Menlo Ventures partner and Squint board member. “At Splunk, Devin led the development of our AR products. The number one request from customers was to bring more of their existing data and operational insights into AR. This led to the spark of an incredible business idea, so I was excited to bring Devin into our startup studio, Menlo Labs, to help put Squint on a path to success.” It was within Menlo Labs that the vision for Squint was validated, and manufacturing emerged as the first application for the platform.
“What drew us to Squint was the combination of an outlier founder in Devin, whose background makes him a leading expert in enterprise AR, and a compelling value proposition that is clearly resonating with large enterprise customers like Siemens, Volvo, and more,” said Jess Lee, partner at Sequoia. “Squint uses mobile AR, computer vision, and machine learning to replace paper binders, sticky notes, and human trainings. The way it optimizes factory procedures is incredibly powerful and has the potential to increase factory operations, transforming the way workers interact with machines and applications even beyond the factory floor.”
For more information on Squint, please visit: https://www.squint.ai/
About Squint
Squint works with companies across the manufacturing and energy sectors to help them scale individualized learning. Using the first-ever open-world AR platform with no limits, customers see an 86% reduction in the training time of new operators with Squint. Operators need to memorize thousands of specific details about machines and procedures — they need dynamic, contextual help at a moment’s notice. Squint provides a layer of digital help mapped to the world around them. Squint was founded in 2021 by Devin Bhushan.
About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm that strives to have a positive impact on everything we do. That’s why we support businesses, including Carta, Chime, Harness, Poshmark, PillPack, Pinecone, Roku, Rover, Uber, and Warby Parker that are reimagining life and work for the better. Over 46 years, we’ve grown a portfolio that includes more than 80 public companies, over 165 mergers and acquisitions, and $5.5 billion under management. We invest at every stage and in every sector, with expertise in Consumer, Enterprise, and Healthcare. Menlo Labs, our venture studio, creates companies with high-potential founders. We validate opportunities, invest pre-seed capital, and partner with founders on everything from ideation to GTM. From developing market strategies to creating communities, we provide real impact where entrepreneurs need it most. When we’re in, we’re ALL IN.
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