As workers, robots and conveyor systems increasingly handle the same orders, the data measuring their performance often lives in different places.
Ballast Point led a $9.25 million Series A investment in Takt, a Reston, Virginia-based company whose software brings warehouse labor, robotics and automation data into one place so managers can respond to problems while a shift is still underway.
The financing is Takt’s first institutional round, and Ballast Point partner Sean Barkman will join the company’s board.
Founded in 2021, Takt is already used in more than 100 warehouses in the United States and international markets. Its customers include retailers, consumer brands and third-party logistics companies, including Kenco, which has deployed Takt across 19 distribution centers and plans to extend it to 30 additional distribution centers.
“The way warehouses run has changed faster than the technology used to measure them, and that gap is what drew us to this category,” Barkman said. “What stood out about Takt was the evidence.”
At one Kenco consumer packaged goods facility, Takt says average cost per pallet fell 15%, saving about $229,000 a year, while ODW Logistics reported a 29% improvement in workforce performance and a 39% increase in employee retention after replacing its existing labor management system with Takt.
“Kenco standardized 19 distribution centers on the platform, plans to extend it to 30 more, and can point to results site by site,” Barkman said. “Enterprise operators do not expand a deployment at that pace unless the product is working.”
As warehouses automate, a worker filling an order may depend on a robot, conveyor or automated sorting system, while the data tracking each part of that work sits in separate systems. Takt connects those systems so supervisors can see what is happening during a shift and move workers or address bottlenecks before the shift ends.
The new money will allow Takt to connect with more warehouse management, robotics and material-handling systems and develop artificial intelligence agents that can recommend and eventually make some operating decisions within limits set by supervisors. If orders suddenly shift toward products waiting to be picked, for example, the system could determine when workers should move from packing to picking and adjust staffing as conditions change.
Takt also plans to continue expanding internationally, including in the United Kingdom, European Union and Asia-Pacific markets.
Founded in 2002, Ballast Point manages more than $550 million across four funds and typically invests $5 million to $15 million initially in software, technology-enabled business services and health care companies, primarily in Florida, the Southeast and Texas. Takt did not disclose how much of the $9.25 million round came from Ballast Point or identify the other investors.