Warehouse inventory errors can be costly and ruin client relationships. Student startup HaptE is using AI to improve warehouse efficiency. Founded by recent graduates Trevor Abbott ’26 and Victoria Israel ’26, HaptE provides real-time feedback to forklift operators to ensure they’re selecting the correct items off warehouse shelves, in the correct quantities, and loading those items onto the correct trucks for shipment.
“Mistakes and inefficiencies account for 10 to 30% of profit loss for warehouse operators,” Abbott says. “For a business that’s bringing in up to $500 million a year, 10 to 30% adds up. We are preventing those losses and improving throughput.”
HaptE recently won the $100,000 grand prize at VentureCat 2026, Northwestern’s startup Competition, and deployed its technology with its first customer, a Chicagoland contract manufacturer, earlier this year. The startup also plans to work with distributors and logistics companies.
Abbott and Israel met during Wildcat Welcome in 2022 and quickly became business partners. They received the 2024 Little Joe Ventures Fellowship in Entrepreneurship and developed HaptE in The Garage’s Jumpstart Pre-Accelerator program that same year. Abbott and Isreal were named to the Chicago Business Journal’s Chicago Inno Under 25 list in 2024. Most recently, they received mentorship and resources as the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation’s 2025 Morehead Family Innovator Fellows.
