With Amazon Alexa and other IoT devices, you can issue commands that voice technology will follow to control everything in your home. Datch is the intelligent voice assistant applying the same principle for industrial settings to give front-line workers to reclaim their time by focusing on their jobs rather than documentation. Datch replaces tedious work processes, records live sequence-of-events in extensive detail, and collects real-time knowledge. Datch can also perform tasks like checking inventory, ordering products, recording any mishaps or machine breakdowns on the line, and more with its voice technology. The company is presently focusing on applications in areas where the workforce is predominantly desk-less like mining, utilities, and manufacturing.
LA TechWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Mark Fosdike to learn more about how Datch is impacting the industries where its implemented, fundraising during the pandemic as first-time founders, and much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Seed – $3.2M. Our lead investors were Blue Bear, with support from Stage Venture Partners, Tuhua Ventures, Lorimer Ventures, Predictive Venture Partners, Acceleprise, and Plug and Play Ventures.
Tell us about the product or service that Datch offers.
Datch is an intelligent voice AI for industrial environments. It uses conversations to solve business process constraints, such as time spent on work orders, logging information, and solving problems during equipment breakdowns. Datch’s voice-visual interface allows staff to capture high-quality, real-time knowledge data, recording live sequence-of-events in granular detail and resulting in improved root cause analysis, informed purchasing decisions, and data-driven business intelligence.
We work closely with our customers across the mining, energy, and manufacturing sectors to identify and obtain high-quality, structured knowledge data, driving higher uptime, increased productivity, and top-line revenue.
What inspired the start of Datch?
My cofounders and I all came from engineering backgrounds in the aerospace, shipbuilding, and energy sectors. We initially came up with Datch as a solution to the time we saw our teams losing by simply filling out paperwork on the shop floor. Diving deeper into the problem we realized that nobody had worked out how to retain and structure frontline worker knowledge without sacrificing thousands of hours every week, and even then, the quality was almost always poor. At the same time, we had been experimenting with voice technology, and it suddenly clicked that this was a groundbreaking opportunity to change the way knowledge is retained.
How is Datch different?
We use voice and NLP to replace the workflows and processes required to be carried out by the desk-less workforce. Capturing knowledge as it’s generated. This was previously done asynchronously and by paper, desktop, and occasionally mobile workflows.
What market are you targeting and how big is it?
Heavy industry. Our current focus is on the Mining, Manufacturing & Utilities sectors.
What’s your business model?
B2B SaaS.
What was the funding process like?
It’s exactly how it’s described in all the blogs and podcasts by founders that came before us. Very tough at the beginning, but with a lot of iteration and internal traction, we managed to bring in enough investors to oversubscribe even after COVID hit.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
The market effects due to COVID. This spooked a number of investors, while others held firm, understanding that Datch was a strong investment regardless of short-term market impacts.
We are also first-time founders from outside California, coming from Australia and NZ. So, we had to work hard to build our network from scratch and learn how to communicate our story and technology with the investment community.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Thesis alignment, the team (founder-market fit), early traction, and our vision and roadmap for a voice-visual future for frontline workers.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
- Hire a team of superstars
- Scale up our customer deliveries
- Continue delivering platform features. Having a seamless hands-free, play-by-play experience is our #1 product goal.
What advice can you offer companies in Los Angeles that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Customer success is everything! Cut back on spending wherever you can, but don’t sacrifice customer success. Retention matters more when the market is struggling to create demand, and companies that master customer success in recessions thrive in good times.
Customer success is everything! Cut back on spending wherever you can, but don’t sacrifice customer success. Retention matters more when the market is struggling to create demand, and companies that master customer success in recessions thrive in good times.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We have a bunch of great customers, and we’re laser-focused on being the best technology they’ve ever invested in!
Where is the best place in LA to watch the sunset?
We’ve just moved to LA and as you can imagine we haven’t been able to get out much yet. But we’ll take suggestions.
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