Californian asset monitoring company Roambee has acquired Arnekt, an Indian cloud analytics services firm with expertise in data science, natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI).

The acquisition bolsters Roambee’s capabilities to deliver better business outcomes using Honeycomb, its immersive, location-aware platform. Arnekt’s AI and machine-learning infused frameworks is already implemented by Fortune Global 500 customers including Honda, Epson and HPE.

A McKinsey paper states that, in some settings, AI-based approaches are expected to reduce product unavailability by up to 65 per cent, transportation and warehousing and supply chain administration by five to ten per cent and 25 to 40 per cent respectively, and overall inventory reductions of 20 to 50 per cent.

This return on investment (RoI) is amplified when the capabilities of AI are applied on reliable visibility data gathered throughout the supply chain using sensors rather than just aggregating EDIs or carrier data.

Roambee offers real-time, end-to-end supply chain visibility combining first-hand sensor data and non-sensor intelligence to enable enterprises to deliver shipments and assets on time, in full and in top condition anywhere in the world.

Roambee recently completed its series B1 funding totalling in excess of $18m led by Temasek and Kuehne + Nagel backed Reefknot Investments. It also monitors the vaccine cold chain across multiple modes of transport for one of the largest US-headquartered, global Covid-19 vaccine makers.

“Over the past year, we have seen acceleration in the adoption of real-time shipment visibility and customers are looking to leverage visibility to automate logistics,” said Sanjay Sharma, CEO of Roambee. “Arnekt has built a value creation analytics framework that can ingest disparate data at scale, process it with lowest latency, and predict the next action. This acquisition enables us to scale and grow our offerings such as the Swarm AI network analytics platform to help customers optimise their supply chain operations.”

Founded in 2012, Arnekt offers end-to-end technology for modelling structured and unstructured data using computer vision, NLP, AI and ML. The company has developed and deployed cognitive AI products for diverse customers in Japan, India and the UK.

“Over the years, Arnekt has delivered industry solutions for finance, automotive, pharmaceutical and logistics industries,” said Mandar Kale, Arnekt CEO. “Our unique combination of cloud native and product engineering experience is why clients seek out Arnekt to help them solve complex problems by unlocking the power of AI. Arnekt is excited to join Roambee to deliver greater value for the customers with our proven analytics frameworks and pre-trained machine-learning models. Together, our goal is to enhance the value derived from real-time visibility to drive logistics automation.”

More than 300 global enterprises have chosen Roambee to improve product velocity, compress order-to-cash cycles and forecast demand accurately. It is investing in AI and data analytics to make trusted business recommendations. Its immersive, location-aware intelligence platform is powered by purpose-built multi-sensor IoT hardware and global connectivity options to monitor at scale. At the same time, robotic technology automates processes for transparent business operations.

Silicon Valley-based Roambee has regional offices in Mexico, Brazil, UK, Germany, UAE, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.