Theatro, the mobile voice communications platforms that gives hourly employees access to critical corporate resources, landed Cisco and Honeywell as new investors, a move that will broaden its geographical footprint as well as the industries it serves.
Retail is among Threatro’s largest verticals, and stalwarts such as Neiman Marcus use the platform to optimize loss prevention by accelerating communications “during a theft situation,” and offer excellent service in fitting rooms, according to Scott Emmons, who formerly led the luxury retailer’s innovation lab. Another retailer that operates 90 stores in the U.S. boosted annual revenue by roughly $4.5 million by using Theatro to check on inventory levels while remaining side by side with the customer, according to a case study published on its website.
As retail struggles through unprecedented transformation and stores shutter by the thousands, customers expect a superior experience when they patronize brick and mortar locations—and retail tech like Theatro’s “heads up and hands-free” communications platform could help retailers meet consumer needs while ensuring employees are empowered and engaged.
And Theatro CEO Chris Todd believes businesses across industries are beginning to realize the opportunity that smart technology affords. “Companies across a wide variety of industries are recognizing the significant customer experience and productivity benefits of a connected and engaged workforce,” he explained. Theatro’s SaaS-based Intelligent Assistant platform
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Working with heavyweights such as Cisco and Honeywell, Todd continued, will empower Dallas-based Theatro to “remain at the cutting edge of both networking and mobile standards and help us bring these benefits to more organizations, in a seamless and comprehensive manner.”
Noting Cisco Investments’ commitment to helping clients address complicated business challenges, Donald Tucker, head of collaboration corporate development and investments, said, “Enabling collaborative tools to penetrate organizations’ employee populations more deeply and more productively is the next frontier in workforce enablement. We look forward to unlocking that potential with Theatro.”
At Honeywell, Theatro has a long-standing relationship with its Safety and Productivity solutions business, which serves a wide range of industries from manufacturing and agriculture to construction, emergency services and food and beverage.
“As we continue to develop and invest in software-driven industrial innovation, we understand the tremendous value in leveraging Theatro’s platform into new technologies, verticals and geographies,” John Waldron, president and CEO of Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions, explained in a statement. “It adds an established, highly incremental new platform to Honeywell’s mobile solutions portfolio, and we look forward to exploring new applications for the technology in the near future.”
Over the years Theatro has taken venture funding to build out a voice-driven mobile platform that unifies artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and “workforce-optimized apps” in service of wage earners who work in the retail, hospitality, manufacturing and gaming industries.
Neither Theatro nor its new investors disclosed any financial terms of their expanded relationship.