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SIERA.AI’s machine vision system helps prevent forklift accidents. | Source: SIERA.AI

SIERA.AI, a provider of forklift monitoring systems, announced that it raised $6.8 million in seed funding.

“Our vision is to bring the power of one-screen on the vehicle and one dashboard in the cloud for heavy industrial vehicles.” Saurav Agarwal, co-founder and CEO of SIERA.AI, said. “We expect our platform will enable customers to connect their warehouse management and manufacturing execution systems to our single mobility orchestration engine that will drive productivity across all types of manual and autonomous vehicles.”

The company offers two safety systems, SIERA.AI S3 and SIERA.AI S2. S3 is an all-in-one forklift safety system. The system includes machine vision that checks for obstructions around a forklift every 30 ms. With its “Pedestrian Detection” option, anytime something comes within a defined distance of the forklift, the system will let off an audible and visual alarm.

The system also has a “Slow to a Safe Stop” option. With this option, the system will give a warning when a forklift gets close to an obstruction, but will stop automatically if the operator doesn’t respond in time.

S2 monitors impacts in real time and collects data and reports it on a web-based dashboard. S2 makes forklift monitoring simpler, with the option to create checklists to closely monitor inspections.

The company was founded in 2017 with a grant from the United States National Science Foundation. It was used to conduct a study on forklift safety in the US.

In the study, SIERA.AI found that each year companies spend over $30 billion on forklift accidents. These accidents result in almost 100 deaths and 36,000 serious accidents. The company advertises its S3 system can eliminate accidents altogether.

“Warehousing is the new retail,” Suhas Ahuja, co-founder and COO of SIERA.AI, said. “SIERA.AI is positioned to lead the new ecommerce world with safety and automation that enables an organization to achieve sustainable growth.”

SIERA.AI’s products are going to be used by Ken’s Foods and NFI Industries to help scale its operations. The funding round included participation from Parkway Venture Capital and Ubiquity Ventures.