

Press Release
Kiva Systems Selected by AlwaysOn as a Northeast 100 Top Private Company Award Winner
Recognized for ‘Game-Changing’ Automation Technology That Leads to Faster Cycle Times, Reduced Costs and Strategic Flexibility
Woburn, MA - April 21, 2008 – Kiva Systems, a developer of breakthrough mobile solutions for the distribution and order fulfillment industry, today announced that has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the Northeast 100 Top Private Companies. The first-annual Northeast 100 list was compiled by the AlwaysOn editorial panel. In order to be eligible for the list, companies in the Northeastern United States had to be creating new business opportunities in high-growth markets, demonstrating significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technology in a key sector. AlwaysOn received hundreds of nominations for this year’s list.
The Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System is an innovative approach to order fulfillment that uses mobile robots to transform century-old serial processes into a parallel workflow. This new parallel workflow gives workers random access to any inventory item in the warehouse from a single work station. Kiva robots typically give retail distribution operators a pick-rate increase of 200 percent, reduce order error rates by at least 60 percent, and push the order cycle down to minutes from days, compared to conventional, bolted-down systems.
The idea behind the Northeast 100 companies list is to identify the most promising entrepreneurial opportunities and investments in the Northeast region’s technology industry. Kiva Systems and the Northeast 100 Top Companies for 2008 were honored at the AlwaysOn Venture Summit East on April 7 – April 9, 2008, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, Mass
“For the first annual elite Northeast 100 list we surveyed more than 500 venture investors, investment bankers and technology insiders, who nominated hundreds of companies to determine the Northeast 100 winners,” said Tony Perkins, Founder and Editor, AlwaysOn Network. “Each of the Northeast 100 winners had to demonstrate leadership among their peers in the following areas: innovation, market opportunity, commercialization, media buzz, and stakeholder value creation. We congratulate them all on this great honor!”
“We are pleased that AlwaysOn has recognized the ‘game-changing’ approach Kiva has brought to the supply chain industry, and are honored to be chosen for this prestigious award,” said Mick Mountz, Kiva Systems CEO. “With the rapid growth of e-Commerce, retailers are increasingly feeling constrained by the lack of flexibility and inefficiencies afforded by most bolted-down automated systems. The Kiva MFS allows for warehouse flexibility and leads to faster cycle times, and customers consistently report productivity increases upwards of 200 percent.”
About The AlwaysOn
Venture Summit East
Venture Summit East is a two-day gathering that highlights the significant economic, political and technology trends impacting the global growth investor. Venture Summit East features the most influential institutional investors, venture capitalists, corporate buyers, investment bankers and research analysts in the Eastern US in keynote presentations and panel debates. The goal of Venture Summit East is to match growth-company buyers and sellers and identify the most promising innovation-driven, growth investment opportunities.
About Kiva Systems
Kiva Systems, Inc. uses game-changing automation technology for distribution centers that helps companies simplify operations and reduce costs, while increasing strategic flexibility. Using autonomous mobile robots and sophisticated control software, the Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System enables extremely fast cycle times with reduced labor requirements, from receiving to picking to shipping – all without conveyor. The result is a building that is quick and low-cost to set up, inexpensive to operate, and easy to change. For more information on Kiva Systems and its solutions, please visit www.kivasystems.com
# # #
Press Contacts
|