Founded in Vienna in 2014, Anyline leads in mobile data capture and insights worldwide. Using advanced AI and machine learning, Anyline enables seamless interpretation of visual data on any mobile device. Trusted by leading automotive and tire industries, Anyline streamlines scanning of tire sidewalls, tread depth, and vehicle data, making manual processes efficient and convenient.
We’re excited to be sitting down with CEO & Co-Founder, Lukas Kinigadner, to shine a spotlight on Anyline’s journey so far.
Share the story of Anyline, how did it come to fruition?
We founded Anyline a decade ago in 2014, back when smartphones had only been around for a couple of years and were still fairly new. We were working at a software development company, developing applications for iOS and Android systems, and one of our customers was a diabetes management platform called mySugr. The founder, Frank, approached us with a very specific problem: people with diabetes need to measure their glucose levels several times a day and were tasked with manually entering all of these readings into a diary on their smartphone. Frank asked whether there was a way to use a smartphone camera to capture the information from the glucose monitor so that users wouldn’t need to struggle with manual data entry. At that time, mySugr users were typically inputting data from the past week while sitting at home on a Sunday evening because it was too inconvenient to do on the move.
We thought this was a great idea and began searching for a company that could make it happen. After our search, we were amazed to find that we couldn’t locate a single company on earth able to extract text via a smartphone camera. By this point, we all knew that the smartphone was going to be the future — so why was no one working to maximize its capabilities as a capture device? This is where Anyline was born!
The idea excited us so much that we left the software development agency, and myself along with three other co-founders dove into developing Anyline as one of the global market leaders in data capture. The fundamental idea we had back then remains true, all of our products are inspired by repetitive tasks, and we’ve been able to streamline data capture processes for text, tire treads, and more.
Humans are creative creatures; we’re not meant to manually enter IBAN codes on a large scale — so we’re here to eliminate the need for that and make enterprise companies more efficient.
What has been the biggest surprise during your time at Anyline?
The thing I’ve found most surprising over the last 10 years is that, despite the fact that Anyline is an AI company, and despite the fact we’ve been using AI since 2016 and created the first company on Earth that developed this data capture solution, and even though we’ve been using the same transformer models Chat GPT has only been using since 2021 — I am still shocked by how fast AI is being integrated into everyone’s life. Even for experts, the pace at which this development has played out has been astonishing.
Another surprise is that large companies like Apple, which have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into Siri and voice dictation, can’t remotely match the quality of what we have been able to offer. As the CEO of a scale-up, I find this incredibly motivating as it shows that we are not trapped in a world where a couple of large companies own a market, and it reiterates just how much an agile team can move the needle and operate beyond everybody’s expectations.
What has been the hardest lesson learned so far?
The hardest thing I’ve had to deal with at Anyline was in 2016. We had just completed our first significant funding round and we had a ready-to-ship product, so it felt like a perfect time to scale up the company. However, after some time, we realized B2B sales weren’t as straightforward as we anticipated, and sales weren’t ramping up. Unfortunately, this led to the second realization that we wouldn’t be able to keep every Anyliner on the payroll, and we had to make the difficult decision to lay off 30% of our staff.
In hindsight, it was the right decision for the time, but having to let innovators go after spending so much time getting their buy-in, and after they had spent an enormous amount of time and effort to live a shared vision with us, was an incredibly difficult and painful decision to make.
What advice would you offer other growth companies about financing their business?
It’s important to consider money spend in the future and to consider the impact of what happens when that money is spent. Having visibility on fundraising and scaling gives a great deal of insight needed for other decisions. I frequently see companies raising acquiring all the money they can possibly get, only to struggle to deploy it — often while under pressure from VC or equity funds.
It may sound simple, but I think the most important thing I’ve learned over the last 10 years is that you can’t put enough emphasis on cash flow planning. Amazingly, I see so many companies doing a horrible job of this, even large companies with hundreds of employees. Precise cash flow planning and a rolling forecast really give you the chance to drive a company forward in a precise manner. I can’t appreciate enough how great we are at doing that, and how much easier it makes driving difficult decisions.
What is Anyline’s biggest achievement so far?
We’ve achieved so many milestones over the years, from closing large enterprise deals and securing dozens of patents to generating millions in revenue and maintaining top-tier technology. But one that stands out for me is the fact that we have consistently maintained a highly motivated team who understand they can make a significant impact by delivering our enterprise software to customers, and in some cases, even saving lives with our tire scanning technology. The team spirit in our company still feels new and exciting, despite being a scale-up with over 100 employees. I’m incredibly proud of this and would consider it one of our biggest achievements.
Any further tips for aspiring founders?
It’s simple:
- If you haven’t started yet — please start!
- Once you start, don’t stop.
- If you struggle, get help. If you succeed, give help to others.
This cycle is applicable to everyone in a team. Ziglar’s book, ‘Embracing the Struggle’ has helped me a lot. There will always be difficult situations, especially so in an enterprise. It’s important to remember that you’re not alone; we all have struggles and it’s about how you deal with them and the attitude with which you embrace them.
Dive into the difficult parts, make it a sport! I think the biggest differentiator for companies that excel and exceed expectations beyond measure is a founding team and management group that can really embrace the struggle.
