INTERVIEWS – TuMeke, a San Mateo, CA-based provider of a computer vision platform that automatically assesses injury risk in manufacturing facilities, just announced the raise of $10M in Series A funding.
In conjunction with the closing, Co-Founder Diwakar Ganesan answered our questions about the company, the product, the funding, and future plans. : Hi Diwakar, can you tell us a bit more about yourself? What’s your background?
TuMeke was born out of a collaboration between myself, Riley Noland, and Zach Noland to prevent job-related injuries at industrial facilities. Rooted in a mission to eliminate workplace musculoskeletal injuries, our team is comprised of experts in technology and ergonomics, with professional and academic backgrounds at Google and Stanford. Since its conception, TuMeke has grown to become a standard tool in the US workers’ compensation insurance industry and among the world’s largest industrial firms.: Let’s speak about TuMeke. What is the market problem you want to solve? What is the real opportunity?
Workplace musculoskeletal injuries are commonplace across industries, yet traditional ergonomic risk assessment processes are manual, laborious, and inefficient. An industry ripe for digital transformation, the global smart manufacturing market is expected to grow from USD 108.9B in 2023 to USD 241.0B, with AI and automation poised to enable new advancements. At TuMeke we’re harnessing this technology, leading the industry forward, offering an AI system that combines the best in computer vision and ergonomics to help our customers identify movements that are more likely to lead to musculoskeletal injuries, then offering recommendations to enhance employee safety. With our advanced computer vision capabilities, safety staff can take a video on their smartphone to reduce the identified risk of a job in minutes and, the risk assessment process can be completed without halting production.
Worker safety is non-negotiable and our technology addresses immediate ergonomic concerns and assists in the development of long-term safety strategies, establishing employee well-being as a fundamental aspect of daily operations.: What are the features differentiating the product from competitors?
The impact of AI on industries employing manual labor is at a crossroads. We’ve intentionally adopted a product development philosophy centered around keeping the human-in-the-loop, rather than a process that autonomously makes decisions and collects data with no oversight.
This approach differentiates us from our competitors in two ways: Form factor – Many safety companies plug into closed-circuit cameras or sell wearables that must be worn throughout the day. In contrast, our technology is delivered via a phone app and web suite. With our primary form factor of mobile phones, our platform is often used by safety specialists doing routine training/inspections on jobs; a process that ensures a human has to be “in-the-loop”, at the very least to collect the information and explain results to the employee.Employee consent – In addition to the adherence to industry standards of asking employees’ consent to be assessed and maintaining records of their responses, we don’t offer any way to connect individual assessments back to employees. Also, our assessment videos are limited in length and we blur the face of employees so they can’t be used for long-term surveillance.: You just raised a new funding round. Please, tell us more about it.
In total, we’ve raised $13 million to date. This includes the $10M Series A funding round led by Intel Capital and our 2.5M seed round raised last year by GSR Ventures.: Can you share some numbers and achievements of the business?
TuMeke was created to arm businesses with a tool that efficiently, affordably, and ethically improves the safety of employees. Our commitment to our mission has allowed us to become a key partner in manufacturing, empowering industry powerhouses to prioritize ergonomic safety and establish a resilient workforce. Our rapid growth and loyal customer base speak to our success and data we’ve collected so far indicates the platform reduces industrial injuries by more than 60%.
: What are your medium-term plans?
With our Series A closing, we hope to double down on the advantages we’ve built up and continue to build AI the right way for workers and manufacturers alike. The funding will allow us to expand operations, launch new features that enhance the capabilities and safety of EHS teams as well as grow and scale our team of engineers, ergonomists, and academics.19/12/2023
TuMeke was born out of a collaboration between myself, Riley Noland, and Zach Noland to prevent job-related injuries at industrial facilities. Rooted in a mission to eliminate workplace musculoskeletal injuries, our team is comprised of experts in technology and ergonomics, with professional and academic backgrounds at Google and Stanford. Since its conception, TuMeke has grown to become a standard tool in the US workers’ compensation insurance industry and among the world’s largest industrial firms.: Let’s speak about TuMeke. What is the market problem you want to solve? What is the real opportunity?
Workplace musculoskeletal injuries are commonplace across industries, yet traditional ergonomic risk assessment processes are manual, laborious, and inefficient. An industry ripe for digital transformation, the global smart manufacturing market is expected to grow from USD 108.9B in 2023 to USD 241.0B, with AI and automation poised to enable new advancements. At TuMeke we’re harnessing this technology, leading the industry forward, offering an AI system that combines the best in computer vision and ergonomics to help our customers identify movements that are more likely to lead to musculoskeletal injuries, then offering recommendations to enhance employee safety. With our advanced computer vision capabilities, safety staff can take a video on their smartphone to reduce the identified risk of a job in minutes and, the risk assessment process can be completed without halting production.
Worker safety is non-negotiable and our technology addresses immediate ergonomic concerns and assists in the development of long-term safety strategies, establishing employee well-being as a fundamental aspect of daily operations.: What are the features differentiating the product from competitors?
The impact of AI on industries employing manual labor is at a crossroads. We’ve intentionally adopted a product development philosophy centered around keeping the human-in-the-loop, rather than a process that autonomously makes decisions and collects data with no oversight.
This approach differentiates us from our competitors in two ways: Form factor – Many safety companies plug into closed-circuit cameras or sell wearables that must be worn throughout the day. In contrast, our technology is delivered via a phone app and web suite. With our primary form factor of mobile phones, our platform is often used by safety specialists doing routine training/inspections on jobs; a process that ensures a human has to be “in-the-loop”, at the very least to collect the information and explain results to the employee.Employee consent – In addition to the adherence to industry standards of asking employees’ consent to be assessed and maintaining records of their responses, we don’t offer any way to connect individual assessments back to employees. Also, our assessment videos are limited in length and we blur the face of employees so they can’t be used for long-term surveillance.: You just raised a new funding round. Please, tell us more about it.
In total, we’ve raised $13 million to date. This includes the $10M Series A funding round led by Intel Capital and our 2.5M seed round raised last year by GSR Ventures.: Can you share some numbers and achievements of the business?
TuMeke was created to arm businesses with a tool that efficiently, affordably, and ethically improves the safety of employees. Our commitment to our mission has allowed us to become a key partner in manufacturing, empowering industry powerhouses to prioritize ergonomic safety and establish a resilient workforce. Our rapid growth and loyal customer base speak to our success and data we’ve collected so far indicates the platform reduces industrial injuries by more than 60%.
: What are your medium-term plans?
With our Series A closing, we hope to double down on the advantages we’ve built up and continue to build AI the right way for workers and manufacturers alike. The funding will allow us to expand operations, launch new features that enhance the capabilities and safety of EHS teams as well as grow and scale our team of engineers, ergonomists, and academics.19/12/2023
