Tyson Ventures invests in digital wearable startup

The venture capital arm of Tyson Foods is one of four lead investors in Iterate Labs, a startup specializing in wearable digital technology for the poultry industry. Tyson Ventures was joined by Monzukuri Ventures, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator and Ray Muzyka funding more than $1 million in seed money for the startup.

The technology attaches to the glove of plant workers and can monitor and record worker movements, alerting supervisors in real-time if certain motions put a worker at risk of injuries.

“At Tyson Ventures, we are continually exploring new areas of technology and artificial intelligence that can improve the health and well-being of our team members.” said Rahul Ray, director of Tyson Ventures.“We believe Iterate Labs’ Industrial IoT (Internet of Things) platform could be a game changer driving real-time visibility, safety and productivity for the North American manufacturing workforce.”

The startup plans to use the funding to support customer acquisition and invest in sales and engineering resources for further growth.

“We are beyond excited to have such well-established investors in the manufacturing space join our round. As one of the world’s largest food companies, Tyson Foods’ strong support for their workforce and continued focus on innovation will help us more effectively solve the needs of our customers” said Jason Guss, CEO and co-founder of Iterate Labs.

He said this is just the start of a journey to digitize manufacturing facilities and to enable a safer and more productive environment for our front-line workers.

“We will be using the proceeds of the round to bring our technology to more workforces, and to provide more value along the way,” Guss said.