Announcing Chingona’s Investment in Tendrel
We are excited to share that Tendrel, a workforce optimization platform for frontline industries, has raised an oversubscribed $3.5MM Seed Round, led by Zenda VC and Moment Ventures, with participation from Chingona Ventures, Bread & Butter Ventures, Everywhere Ventures, and Supply Change Capital.
Led by a seasoned team, Tendrel is on a mission to address the labor shortage crisis that has been plaguing industries such as agriculture, warehousing, manufacturing, hospitality, and more. The founding team, Akash Nandi (CEO), Mark Keller (CTO), and Karsten Kell (Advisor), met while working together at AppHarvest, an food production company in Kentucky, where Akash joined as VP of Deployment Operations after selling his robotics startup, Root AI, to the company. “We are building the data infrastructure for physical labor, shifting work from analog inefficiency to AI-driven optimization. Our approach uplifts frontline staff with mobility and visibility while increasing facility productivity”, said Nandi.
In today’s frontline industries, the pressing issues of labor shortages and rising labor costs have become increasingly acute, with employers facing talent availability, retention, and skillset challenges. Despite technological advancements predominantly targeting the non-human aspects of frontline operations, solutions have largely overlooked the effective management of human capital. Labor stands as a primary, yet inadequately managed, expense within essential industries such as food production and manufacturing. For instance, a 2018 report by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute projected that as many as 2.4 million unfilled manufacturing jobs could create an estimated $2.5 trillion negative economic impact in the U.S between 2018 and 2028.
Tendrel captures ground truth data like real-time product quality, optimal process paths, and quantified worker skill sets. This data powers advanced workforce & workflow planning, surfacing each worker’s strengths, and laying the foundations for augmenting a company’s human capital. The Tendrel application is available in offline mode, in 75 languages, and deployed across North America and the UK spanning greenhouses, packhouses, and warehouses with new deployments planned for manufacturing and processing plants.
Tendrel sits at the intersection of Chingona’s investment focus areas. The company is building within the Future of Work, introducing operational efficiency to the overlooked realm of human capital augmentation and management in frontline industries. This round will enable Tendrel to expand its platform across manual industries like manufacturing, construction, and hospitality as well as onboard partners in connected sensors, computer vision, and other technologies. We are excited to welcome Tendrel to the Chingona portfolio.
Congrats to the Tendrel team! We’re excited to see what this year has in store for you. You can learn more about Tendrel here.
ABOUT TENDREL
Tendrel is building the data infrastructure for physical labor, shifting manual & automated work from analog inefficiency to AI-driven optimization. The founders have lived this problem firsthand, from architecting Amazon’s Kiva-powered warehouses to managing sprawling workforces at the largest food production facilities in the country.
ABOUT CHINGONA VENTURES
Chingona Ventures invests in pre-seed and seed-stage companies in often-overlooked markets, partnering with founders at the earliest stages of development. The firm seeks to invest in financial technology, food technology, future-of-learning, future, and health/wellness companies based in the United States.
