Optical AI Software Creator Alitheon Raises $14.9 Million

BELLEVUE, Wash., Jan. 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alitheontm, a machine vision software company based in Bellevue, Washington, today announced the close of $14.9 million in venture capital financing to expand its FeaturePrinttm technology across the defense, aerospace, aviation services, automotive, semiconductor, luxury goods, additive manufacturing, pharmaceutical and government sectors. Participants in the round include BMW i Ventures, IPD Capital and Shasta Ventures alongside current and former senior management from Accenture, Boeing and Fidelity.

Alitheon's FeaturePrint technology transforms how objects, components and finished products are authenticated, tracked and traced across supply chains and distribution systems throughout the world. Once registered by Alitheon's optical artificial intelligence system, any individual item can be subsequently identified wherever it exists to verify authenticity, determine place and time of origin, detect signs of tampering, measure wear and identify grey market and counterfeit products including unauthorized "over runs" and previously rejected products. Unauthorized and counterfeit items cost legitimate manufacturers more than a trillion dollars and claim as many as a million lives a year.

"A FeaturePrint registration or authentication can be performed in milliseconds at industrial production speeds without human involvement using off-the-shelf hardware integrated at any step throughout manufacturing and distribution," said Scot E. Land, Alitheon's CEO and Co-Founder. "Our mission is straightforward: to create enduring trust among manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and customers."

Alitheon has 34 issued patents with many more pending, and its founders have three decades of experience developing expert and AI systems for identifying product tampering, counterfeiting and security threats. Alitheon's founders helped create the first machine vision-based explosives detection systems and have also developed fraud detection systems, satellite image analysis software and other mission-critical automated systems for governments, corporations and non-profits worldwide.

"Alitheon's ability to identify an item using only the object itself?independent of markings, tags or other modifications?is groundbreaking," said Marcus Behrendt, Partner, BMW i Ventures. "FeaturePrint technology has the potential to bring a new level of trust to supply chains that does not currently exist."

"We are gratified to have BMW i Ventures, IPD Capital and Shasta Ventures alongside current and former executives of some of the world's largest companies as strategic investors in Alitheon," said Land. "The capital raised, and relationships developed in this round will enable us to deploy our FeaturePrint technology across a variety of markets and industries." 

Alitheon is demonstrating its FeaturePrint technology in the BMW pavilion at CES on January 8th.

About Alitheon:

Alitheon is a Bellevue, Washington-based leader in advanced machine vision and artificial intelligence and creator of FeaturePrinttm, a patented system that connects the physical and digital worlds via a secure and immutable link. For more information, contact Alitheon at [email protected]. For press inquiries, email [email protected].

SOURCE Alitheon