Why we built Orca Scan - starting with a skateboard

You're spending too much time tracking your things. Right?

You're juggling spreadsheets, scribbling notes, or stuck using clunky software that belongs in a museum. All you really want to know is where your stuff is, who had it last and how much you have left. It’s not hard, right?

This used to be painfully manual

Tracking meant clipboards, a whole box of highlighters to colour-code checklists and repetitive data entry. Parts stacked next to piles of paperwork, and stock orders lost in overflowing filing systems. It worked, until it didn’t.

Then came the barcode

Invented in 1948, and 30 years later, the first one was scanned at a checkout. Suddenly, tracking things became faster, easier, and more reliable.

But, whilst barcodes evolved, the software around them didn’t. It was tailored to giant warehouses, with IT departments and million-pound budgets, not everyday people who just needed to keep track of their stuff.

But it still wasn't simple enough

When Owen, our COO, was working a summer job inspecting solar panels. He was handed a heavy, outdated scanner, that he had to press to scan each barcode… all 25,000 of them.

There had to be a better way, but there wasn’t.

So, we built a solution

Well, John did. The first version of Orca Scan used an iPhone strapped to a skateboard (seriously) so Owen could roll it past solar panels and scan.

After a few prototypes, we launched Orca Scan on the App Store so his team could use it too.

And people loved it...

Surprisingly, big organisations started downloading it. Hospitals, universities, manufacturers, charities all looking for a simple way to keep track of their stuff.

That’s when it clicked. It didn’t need to be complex, it just needed to work.

Fast forward to today

Over 450,000 users later, Orca Scan is now helping people all over the world track the stuff that matters to them, using the devices they already have in their pocket.

We’ve built Orca Scan to track anything, anywhere, from any device.

And we're just getting started!

Sure, we can scan barcodes, but anyone can do that, right?

Our mission is to become your one-stop platform for everything barcodes. Creating them, printing them, scanning them and building new ways to use them.

We’re a small team with big ambitions to build something truly global 🚀