Authored by Mansi Patel, Cortado Ventures Associate
Read the blog post on Medium
At Cortado Ventures, we invest in ambitious founders reimagining legacy industries through software, data, and vision. Our latest investment in Dockware, a Tulsa-based enterprise SaaS company, reflects that thesis. Dockware is pioneering computer vision–powered shipment intelligence that automates data capture, reduces revenue leakage, and creates a digital twin of every shipment.
Read on to learn more about Dockware, our investment, and how this technology will transform accuracy and efficiency in logistics.
The Context: Why Shipment Data is So Broken
The global economy moves nearly 11 billion tons of cargo each year, but the systems that capture and manage this flow of goods remain outdated, fragmented, and error-prone. Even small errors in shipment data cause cascading inefficiencies that shrink margins, degrade customer trust, and inflate operational costs. [1]
Key Pain Points
● Revenue leakage from under-dimensioning
Shippers frequently under-dimension freight — intentionally or not — to reduce shipping estimates. This costs carriers an estimated 10% of revenue per shipment. [2]
● Billing disputes and surprise costs
Inaccuracies in weights or dimensions often trigger re-weighs, re-measures, or unexpected carrier penalties.
● Manual processes and data silos
Many warehouses still depend on tape measures, clipboards, and spreadsheets. With disconnected systems and no single source of truth, shipment data is often inconsistent.
● Inefficient space utilization
Without precise dimensions, companies waste warehouse capacity and trailer/container space, driving up transportation costs.
● Delayed error detection
Errors are often discovered weeks later during audits or billing reconciliation. By then, it’s too late to fix operational inefficiencies or prevent customer frustration.
Even the smallest errors in shipment data can quietly chip away at profitability. What looks like a minor discrepancy on a single load becomes a major drag when multiplied across thousands of shipments each week. For an industry that already operates on razor-thin margins, unreliable shipment data compounds into billions of dollars in lost revenue and wasted efficiency.
The Dockware Solution: Computer Vision for Every Shipment
Dockware is solving this problem by bringing AI-powered, real-time shipment visibility to carriers, warehouses, shippers, and carriers. Other companies who make the same claim are usually providing visibility or a better UX on the error-riddled data supply chain actors already collect. Dockware is autonomously collecting that data in real time at high accuracy and seamlessly uploading it to dock or inventory management systems.
Dockware Scan (Mobile App)
A mobile platform that enables shippers, drivers, and remote operators to capture shipment data anywhere — no new hardware required. Using a smartphone’s camera, Dockware Scan builds a 360° digital model of each pallet and syncs the data instantly to existing management systems.
Highlights:
-
Fast, low-cost deployment using existing devices.
-
Seamless integration with TMS/WMS platforms.
-
Ideal for distributed teams and remote docks.
Dockware Vision Suite (Hardware Platform)
A ceiling, wall, or track-mounted system that uses cameras and sensors powered by Dockware’s proprietary algorithms to automatically capture dimensions, counts, and condition data as shipments move through the dock.
Highlights:
-
Fully automated, passive data collection.
-
High accuracy and speed for high-volume docks.
-
Enables advanced analytics such as load optimization and damage detection.
While incumbents like Cubiscan, Cyzerg, and Samsara dominate parts of the market, technology remains fragmented. Dockware’s differentiator lies in delivering flexibility (app + hardware), ease of integration, and a pathway to broader feature sets across the supply chain.
Why Cortado Invested
1. Clear Value Proposition
Dockware directly addresses one of the logistics industry’s biggest blind spots: inaccurate shipment data. By automating freight data collection, dimensioning, and creating a digital twin for every shipment, Dockware helps carriers recover lost revenue, while enabling shippers to improve accuracy and compliance. The ability to deploy on a mobile app, existing infrastructure, or Dockware’s Vision Suite hardware gives customers multiple on-ramps to adoption. This versatility ensures Dockware can serve small shippers just as effectively as large distribution centers — something competitors often struggle to achieve.
2. Flexible Deployment
One of the barriers to adoption in logistics technology is cost and complexity. Dockware overcomes this by offering flexible solutions:
● The Scan App allows for quick adoption without new hardware.
● The Vision Suite provides high-accuracy automation for warehouses with greater throughput needs. It attaches with magnets and install takes less than an hour.
● Both solutions integrate seamlessly into existing systems, lowering switching costs and resistance. This flexibility broadens Dockware’s addressable market and creates a scalable path to growth. Customers can start with the app and expand into Vision Suites as volumes grow — a natural land-and-expand motion.
3. Massive Market Potential
The global dimensioning systems market is projected to reach $12.5B by 2031, but for Dockware, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. While dimensioning is an early capability, it’s not the product — it’s the foundation. Dockware’s long-term vision is to become the operating system for dock intelligence, unifying data that today is scattered across scanners, spreadsheets, and siloed warehouse systems.
By starting with dimensioning — the most critical and measurable touchpoint at the dock — Dockware is building the control layer for a broader ecosystem that includes damage detection, trailer and container optimization, SKU-level tracking, and real-time workflow visibility. In other words, Dockware isn’t competing in the dimensioning market; it’s redefining how shipment data is captured, analyzed, and acted upon at the dock — a market that touches virtually every product shipped worldwide.
4. Outstanding Founders
Dockware’s founders bring deep experience from engineering-led organizations like SpaceX, Relativity Space, ABL Space Systems, and Lockheed Martin, paired with leadership experience in public policy and innovation at the U.S. State Department and Tulsa Innovation Labs. Their execution to date — building pilots with shippers and carriers, iterating rapidly on product, and aligning with customer pain points — gave us conviction in their ability to scale. While they are adding logistics expertise to the team, the founders’ proven ability to navigate complex industries and deliver technical solutions is a strong indicator of future success.
Looking Ahead
At Cortado Ventures, we believe Dockware is building the operating system for shipment intelligence. What begins as dimensioning and data capture will evolve into predictive insights, optimization of loading and routing, and broader visibility across the supply chain.
We are proud to back the Dockware team as they grow from Tulsa into a national player, transforming the way freight data is captured, analyzed, and acted upon.
Cheers to innovation and growing Oklahoma!
About Cortado Ventures
Cortado Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in ambitious, growth-driven companies, backing a new generation of economic prosperity for the Midcontinent region (Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico). As one of the largest VC funds in Oklahoma, Cortado focuses on tech companies innovating in energy and logistics, life sciences, and the future of work. For more information, visit cortado.ventures.
[1] McKinsey & Co., Taking the Pulse of Shifting Supply Chains, 2022. Supply chain disruption and resilience | McKinsey
[2] United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Review of Maritime Transport 2023. Review of Maritime Transport 2023 | UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)