With $44M, Voxel Wants to Keep Putting Workers First

At this point in time, while there’s a significant increase in factory construction, particularly in sectors like semiconductors and clean energy, the corresponding employment boost is yet to materialize. This lag, due to the time required to complete advanced manufacturing facilities, is expected to create jobs post-2025.

Voxel’s $44 million Series B funding round arrives just in time to prepare for that pivotal moment: not just for the company, but for the safety of workers in those high-risk environments. Led by NewRoad Capital Partners with participation from Eclipse, Rite-Hite, Tokio Marine, MTech Capital, HG Ventures, and Whitestone, the round brings Voxel’s total funding to $61 million. The capital infusion will go toward advancing real-time AI capabilities, expanding R&D, and growing a team that blends deep industry experience with cutting-edge technical talent.

Voxel’s core focus is deceptively simple: prevent workplace accidents before they happen. But the approach is anything but. The San Francisco-based company deploys real-time computer vision models that integrate with existing security cameras in warehouses, ports, factories, and distribution centers to detect unsafe behaviors and environmental hazards- everything from poor ergonomics to blocked exits or near-miss forklift incidents.

“We’re developing AI to support the workers performing demanding jobs day in and day out on warehouse floors, in factories, in ports, really any industrial environment,” said Vernon O’Donnell, CEO of Voxel. “Leaders don’t need more dashboards or things to do on a daily basis: They need tools that drive action, improve training, and keep teams protected in a way that is part of their daily workflow.”

Founded in 2020, Voxel’s premise is that traditional safety programs built around reactive responses and post-incident investigations no longer suffice in a world where high-velocity logistics and labor shortages collide. While global workplace fatalities remain in the millions, with over 5,000 in the U.S. alone in 2023, the vast majority are preventable. Voxel’s technology brings risk visibility to corners of the workplace long overlooked, enabling proactive coaching and immediate response.

Customers are already seeing tangible results. The platform has helped sites reduce recordable injuries by up to 91% and achieve over $2.2 million in direct cost savings. Americold Logistics, for example, saw a 77% drop in injuries within a year and used Voxel data to reshape its safety culture. “Voxel is life-changing for this industry, for warehousing and distribution,” one Americold executive stated. “Think of all the indirect costs involved in preventing one incident, let alone multiple. More than a couple can bring your whole company to its knees.”

The market appears to agree. Voxel reported 147% year-over-year revenue growth and a 202% net revenue retention rate, landing five new Fortune 500 customers in Q1 2025 alone. Clients include Dick’s Sporting Goods, AGI, Port of Virginia, and Berry Global, among others. “Voxel has fundamentally shifted how we think about safety and operations,” said Drew Kofeldt, Chief Safety Officer at AGI. “With real-time insights, we’re not just reacting to incidents: we’re preventing them.”

Voxel’s impact extends beyond individual sites. By capturing and analyzing millions of hours of footage, the system identifies trends in unsafe behavior and helps safety professionals tailor training and policies accordingly. Whether it’s detecting PPE compliance or monitoring vehicle near-misses, the AI provides what many safety managers lack: eyes on every part of the operation, all the time.

Competitors in the industrial AI space do exist, such as Visionify, Intenseye and viAct, many offering predictive maintenance, autonomous robotics, or compliance monitoring. Voxel is distinguishing itself with a worker first agenda. “AI isn’t just about replacing workers,” O’Donnell wrote in a recent blog post. “We’re giving them superpowers to apply their expertise as a force multiplier.”

For backers like NewRoad Capital Partners, the decision to invest was clear. “Voxel is solving a problem every operator understands: how to keep people safe while running complex, high-velocity environments,” said Chris Sultemeier, Operating Partner at NewRoad and former EVP of Logistics at Walmart. “Their platform brings real-time visibility to the places it’s been missing for too long. The team has built something that works, and the market is ready for it.” 

The funding will also allow Voxel to stay ahead of evolving industry demands while maintaining its commitment to ethical AI development. The company explicitly distances itself from surveillance-focused narratives, emphasizing that its system does not identify individuals and is meant to empower and not monitor workforces.

With workplace safety being both a moral imperative and a business advantage, Voxel is in a good place.“This $44M investment allows us to meet that demand while maintaining the quality and personal touch that our customers expect,” said O’Donnell. “It’s about scaling our impact without losing sight of our mission.”

For a sector long reliant on clipboards and compliance checklists, Voxel could be working on one of the most consequential applications of AI: keeping workers safer.