Ox Fulfilment Solutions (Ox) has announced a $3.5 million seed round to expand its reach and help more retail businesses automate their omnichannel operations. The funding will be used to invest in partnerships, expand operations and develop a larger in-house team.
Led by notable investors MaC Venture Capital and Cortado Ventures, the round had additional participation from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Vuzix, Florida Funders, KCRise Fund and Willow Growth Partners.
Ox CEO and founder, Charu Thomas said traditional supply chains needed help catching up to the competition to keep up with the ever-growing retail market.
“This is when I began developing an AR platform for warehouse order picking,” she said.
“I had previously worked in a warehouse, so I knew how to best optimise the systems that were already in place while using my background in hardware prototyping and software development to create something entirely new.
“Ox provides its customers with a seamless experience for maximising efficiency in all areas of fulfillment, from tailored onboarding of employees to real-time built-in associate messaging.”
Designed to help businesses meet increasing needs for fast shipping and in-store pickup, Ox eliminates the time that supply chains spend manually assigning work and tracking performance.
Through its machine learning software, Ox has created a process for workforce optimisation, providing management staff with a way to maximise productivity, automate work assignments, gain visibility over orders and measure employee performance.
Ox’s state-of-the-art platform integrates with a company’s current order management system and provides tools to transform its stores into micro-distribution centers through optimised pick-from-store operations.
Order-picking typically accounts for about 55% of warehouse operating costs, but Ox can help cut those costs. After implementing Ox into its supply chain, employees never have to touch a button, worry about scanners or carry around a handheld device again. Ox’s augmented reality technology can make picking orders up to 15% faster and 80% more accurate than any other existing technology.