Tristar AI, which uses artificial intelligence for vision inspection solutions, has started manufacturing after receiving seed funding of $3.15 million.
The company says its product can optimize production and maintenance.
"The stuff that we tackle cannot be done by normal people," said Salem Karani, the co-founder and CEO of Tristar AI.
"We're like suckers for pain [and] we take on the hardest projects. For example, if you have 1-millimeter film that has like really light scratches on it, it's impossible to detect with current systems and it's really hard to with the human eye, but we have a really cutting edge models," Karani added.
The company is owned by Las Olas Venture Capital (LOVC) and TenOneTen Ventures, with participation from Ford Street Ventures, Nextview Ventures, SNR 5, Trust Ventures and Seraph Partners.
The company dashboard delivers information to any device and is customized for the customer's operators. Tristar AI integrates with existing Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and business intelligence systems.
The technology is supporting the film industry by overcoming the challenges of identifying holes, tears and wrinkles for maintenance. he said. This helps the customer with upkeep and consistency, leading to more productive production.
By using camera footage and real-time monitoring of human motions, the AI can detect any defects that might occur on a factory floor. Alarms then sound as errors are detected and a stack light indicates the defect threshold.
Tristar AI is in place at more than 30 facilities nationwide in the plastics and automotive industries. The AI system is being used across hundreds of lines. The company has 10 customers now but Karani expects to more than double that number within a year.
Karani says the company is in talks with six of the largest film manufacturers in North America.
"[This] product is really making an impact in the industry," Karani said. "There is no other way to change the status quo than to be deployed and helping the biggest manufacturers."
Its seed funding is being aimed at research and development to support the latest algorithms. The company plans to increase its capabilities and hire more engineers.
Being able to expand is on Karani's mind and he says the best way to do that is to also accommodate towards companies producing products that they haven't worked with yet and refining their abilities.
Tristar AI opened in 2023 after raising $1.3 million in seed funding. The company was influenced by Karani's father, Moe Karani's company, Tristar Packaging Inc. in Humble, Texas. Karani grew up within the film industry, even worked the line for his father's company in high school.
"I started learning about computer vision, which is a field of AI where you find meaning in images and get the computer to understand," Karani said "So I made a company where you can continuously monitor product and people as well so that you can look for any issues."
While it currently specializes in film production for end markets such as trash bags and medical bags, Tristar AI also is in the injection molding industry. It says the AI models within these two processes is transferable.
"Doing an amazing job and getting a lot of new customers and injection molding and film will set us up to eventually expand into all of plastics and other categories as well," Karani said.