International Paper backs Relay’s AI radios with $36 million round and wider rollout plans

International Paper wants to bring AI-supported radios to at least two or three times as many sites over the next couple of years. In interviews published by Packaging Dive on October 30, executives explained the appeal: clearer communication today, and a record of workers’ knowledge that could support future automation. The company led Relay’s $36 million round announced September 30.

Relay, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, makes smart radios for loud, demanding workplaces such as manufacturing plants. The devices offer transcription and translation, and connect through multiple major cellular networks. That allows workers to communicate within a site, between locations or farther away. The system pairs a familiar piece of equipment with cloud software that gives managers access to information from those exchanges.

Houston Hawley, Relay’s senior director of industrial sales, said the radio format lets teams keep using equipment they already understand. Translation is intended to help multilingual workforces communicate. Capturing conversations also serves another goal: preserving practical knowledge as experienced employees retire. Relay’s pitch therefore extends beyond getting a message to the right coworker; it includes retaining information that might otherwise leave with the person who knows it.

International Paper first tried Relay at a Tampa, Florida, plant, where better audio quality attracted attention. But Jason Bailey, its program director for disruptive technologies, saw a larger opportunity in transcripts. The Tampa operation has more than 4,000 conversation transmissions each day, he said. Existing monitoring systems could detect aspects of plant operations, but workers’ spoken observations were a missing source of digital information.

we haven't been able to digitize the human voice and capture the voice of the operator.

Jason Bailey, International Paper program director for disruptive technologies, speaking to Packaging Dive

Bailey said capturing frontline information could let International Paper use other technologies to summarize conversations, draw insights and ultimately automate some systems through voice. Those are opportunities he described, not completed automation results. His explanation puts the investment behind a specific operational idea: collect information through the radio workers already carry, then use software to make that information useful beyond the immediate conversation.

International Paper typically tests products like these before investing, Bailey said. Relay performed well in its loud operations, which require rugged equipment, and the company saw room for the software platform to develop beyond radio communication. The September 30 financing also included Cerity, Harmonic Growth Partners, Thayer Investment Partners, G2 Venture Partners and Wind River Ventures. The round brought Relay’s total capital raised to more than $90 million.

More than 20 International Paper sites are now piloting or scaling Relay radios. Bailey described a rollout approach that starts by making sure plants want the technology. Once demand becomes strong enough, the company can shift toward pushing adoption across more locations. That distinction matters to the expansion plan: the current footprint includes both trials and scaling efforts, rather than a uniform, completed deployment.

Safety is another selling point: Relay devices include a panic button. Recording conversations also raises a tradeoff that Bailey acknowledged. He said safety and other benefits typically outweigh concerns about transcripts. His position explains International Paper’s willingness to capture more frontline communication, but it remains the employer’s assessment of that balance—not a statement from workers about how they view having their radio conversations transcribed.