Swiss inventory tracking drone start-up Verity has completed a $32m series B funding round led by Danish logistics company Maersk.

The investment came from Maersk parent AP Moller Holding with participation from Exor Ventures and existing and new investors. This funding allows Verity to scale up operations to address the growing backlog of deployments with systems already installed in 30 sites across 13 countries on three continents.

Supply chain automation has become a top priority for third-party logistics providers (3PLs), retailers, and manufacturers to address business-critical logistics problems. Inventory management is a prime use case for automation: manual inventory scanning is costly and laborious, and errors frequently lead to lost productivity and sales.

Verity’s system allows users to automate the manual scanning process, using self-flying warehouse drones that require no operator and can fly in the dark.

The funding comes at a time of momentum for Verity. In response to increased demand, the company is expanding into international markets and is recruiting across the organisation. The benefits of Verity’s system have been hailed by Verity’s flagship clients in the 3PL, manufacturing and retail space, with a combined footprint of over 1500 warehouses.

The Verity system offers automation to the more than 150,000 warehouses worldwide that still rely on manual inventory checks.

“The completion of our series B funding round is an important nod to the value our system provides to clients, and it demonstrates investor confidence in our industry-leading solution and team,” said Verity CEO Raffaello D’Andrea. “We are especially pleased to welcome AP Moller Holding as a key investor in Verity, a global influencer committed to supporting companies that are delivering supply chain excellence and a positive impact on the environment.”

A pioneer in autonomous systems, D’Andrea also co-founded Kiva Systems, which was acquired by Amazon in 2012 and rebranded as Amazon Robotics.

Chetan Mehta, head of growth investing at AP Moller Holding, added: “Raff has been at the forefront of automation technology for decades and we are excited to partner with him and the Verity team and help accelerate growth. The company’s unique full automation is popular with customers and is generations ahead of competitors. We believe the company is poised for significant further expansion in the years ahead, particularly given the significant push towards warehouse automation and supply chain efficiency around the world.”

Founded in 2014, Verity delivers fully autonomous indoor drones. Based in Zurich with global operations, Verity’s system is used in warehouses to gather insights that enable greater operational efficiencies. The system cuts labour and equipment costs, eliminates errors and disruptions, improves service, and reduces waste and CO₂ emissions.