Most people think Apkudo started by building robots. The truth is, our mission began with a broken device supply chain and a commitment to ground truth data. Our CEO shares the untold story of why Apkudo is, and always has been, a device intelligence company—and how our robotics became the essential vehicle to unlock the Device Passport Platform.
For too long, people have seen our automation cells and assumed we’re a robotics company that happens to have software. That’s actually backward.
The truth is simpler—and far more important. Apkudo has always been a data and intelligence platform company. The robotics we’re known for were built as the most effective way to solve a foundational industry problem: capturing trusted data at scale.
The Apkudo story doesn’t begin in a reverse logistics warehouse, it begins with frustration.
Years ago, we saw that the mobile device ecosystem was struggling with one massive flaw: a lack of reliable, unit-level data. Every time a device moved through the supply chain—from customer return to repair facility—data gaps appeared, and manual processes introduced subjectivity and inconsistency.
Without ground truth, businesses couldn’t operate with confidence. Value leaked from the system every step of the way.
Josh learned something fundamental from an early customer who said that for any industry to function efficiently, its supply chain must operate from a single source of truth. That was missing.
We started with data. Working closely with a leading U.S. carrier, our early platform meticulously tracked every event a device encountered through its lifecycle. The results validated what we knew all along—the power lies in the data.
But solving for visibility wasn’t enough. We had to address the root cause: the unreliable inputs created by human variability.
That’s when Josh realized a crucial fact: before we could deliver an end-to-end intelligence engine, we had to engineer a better way to collect the unit-level data that fuels it in return centers. Our robotics weren’t designed to replace people—they were designed to capture unbiased, high-fidelity data that every stakeholder could trust.
The hardware was never the destination; it was the vehicle for truth.
Today, the market has caught up to what we envisioned from the start. The rise of Digital Product Passports and global sustainability mandates underscores what we’ve always believed—that every device needs a reliable, data-rich identity.
Apkudo’s Device Passport Platform is that foundation.
It combines:
As Josh often says, “You can’t win by simplifying complexity—you win by embracing it.”
That’s what we’ve built our company to do: bring clarity, control, and confidence to one of the most complex ecosystems on earth.
We’re not transitioning into something new—we’re continuing the mission we began years ago. The industry has evolved to meet us where we’ve always been.
Billions of devices will pass through this ecosystem in the coming years. Our goal is simple: Make every one count.
*Vanta 2025 was an invitation-only forum hosted by Apkudo and Cyculus Services.
