Mytra: Building the Operating System for Physical Supply Chains
Our investment in Mytra
Today we’re excited to announce our partnership with Chris Walti, Ahmad Baitalmal and the entire Mytra team as they build the future of supply chains.
The Warehouse Automation Opportunity
Material handling and movement represent nearly 50% of manufacturing labor, yet the processes look fundamentally the same as they did a century ago (the first modern forklift was introduced in 1917 and hasn’t really changed!) The result is a massive labor challenge with hundreds of thousands of open industrial roles today, expected to 5x over the next 5 years, and not nearly enough people to fill them. Meanwhile, with over half of warehouse footprint is considered dead space, beholden to processes and systems that were developed decades ago.
Material flow is still largely manual and inefficient, and automation has not achieved mass market penetration: one research report suggests 80% of industrial facilities have zero automation thanks cost, complexity, and flexibility challenges. Most players in this space are constrained to new-build environments, unable to handle the existing warehouse builds, require complex maintenance, and take many months to deploy.
The industry needs a fundamental platform shift, not incremental improvements.
Mytra and a Software-Defined Approach
Mytra is redefining industrial automation by building modular, autonomous warehouse systems that can both retrofit existing infrastructure and handle new greenfield builds. The platform addresses the multi-trillion global warehouse labor market with a software-defined approach that makes material flow programmable and continuously optimizing.
The system offers several key advantages: simplified architecture for rapid installation and high uptime, retrofit-ready deployment that works in existing warehouses, full-pallet handling capabilities, and a flexible platform that adapts to different warehouse configurations. Early deployments have demonstrated significant improvements in storage density and reductions in material handling labor, with 32% reductions in material handling labor and 34% improvement in storage density.
A Team Built for this Moment
The Mytra team brings exactly the combination of hardware, software, and operational expertise required to tackle this massive infrastructure challenge. Chris led major automation and manufacturing programs at Tesla for 7.5 years, including Model 3 material flow automation and the Optimus humanoid robotics program where he managed a 50-person hardware and software team. Ahmad served as Director of Factory Systems at Rivian and as an engineering manager at Tesla. And with a team of 120+ people with experience at companies including Walmart, Google, Amazon, Meta, and GoPro, they ready to tackle this massive opportunity (P.S. they are hiring!)
Let’s Go!
We at Garuda Ventures are thrilled to have partnered with the Mytra team, and join our friends at Avenir, Eclipse, Greenoaks and more in helping the company reimagine supply chains in the AI era. Let’s do this!
Garuda Ventures is a B2B focused pre-seed fund, most often leading a founder's initial round of financing as their first true believer. The firm aims to be a founder's first call as they navigate their way from a deck and a dream to building a category-defining company. To learn more, visit garuda.vc