Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on solutions for Industry 4.0. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we decided to share our insights with you. This time, we are taking a look at 5 promising Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Startups.
Heat Map: 5 Top Industrial Internet of Things Startups
For our 5 top picks, we used a data-driven startup scouting approach to identify the most relevant solutions globally. The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 interesting examples out of 433 relevant solutions. Depending on your specific needs, your top picks might look entirely different.
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Smart Industry Solutions – Real-Time Monitoring
In many manufacturing or production lines, supervisors and managers get to know about failures in machine output only after the goods have been produced. This can be frustrating for planners and can end up affecting the bottom line for companies. By being able to monitor production and assembly lines in real-time, modifications and adaptations can be made immediately to ensure there is no negative effect on stocks, costs, or profits. Brazilian startup Smart Industry Solutions develops Information Technology (IT) and Operation Technology (OT) solutions for a range of Industry 4.0 areas from the local factory to the end consumer. Using the Internet of Things (IoT), they connect the factory floor to allow supervisors to monitor the machines in real-time by developing specialized dashboards and reports. They also offer remote management, automation, and maintenance alerts for the machines.
Edge2Web – IIoT Integrations & Analytics
It is not uncommon to find factories using multiple IoT devices to digitize operation management or improve productivity. And most times, they are faced with the issue of compatibility – the data is being collected without any way to analyze it. Startups have found that different devices from different companies catering to a wide array of issues can be integrated centrally for managers to use effectively. The US-based startup Edge2Web develops Director, a series of tools for building, testing, and operating advanced industrial applications. Director integrates data collected from IT, OT, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and combines them to provide analytics and insights for the entire factory. Also, Director’s edge agent supports communications with industrial clouds such as Siemens MindSphere and GE Predix, when available.
Rosetta Systems – IIoT Security & Risk Assessment
The large scale adoption of connected devices is not always neatly patched up like our computer and mobile operating systems mainly because of fears of downtime – the issue IIoT is trying to bring to a minimal. This has given rise to startups focusing on innovative security solutions for industrial networks. The US-based startup Rosetta Systems offers comprehensive security solutions for the connected factory. Their Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) offering continuously monitors industrial control networks to assess security risks. Their solution can detect changes that could potentially affect the security posture of the networks. And based on the risk level, notifications and alerts are provided to those in charge of the network.
Vibrobox – Automated Prescriptive Maintenance
One of the more common issues faced by factory managers is to find the condition of any equipment or machine when it is necessary. Online diagnostic systems are capable of informing the manager when a machine exceeds certain preset limits, either in temperature, vibration levels, or more. Currently, it is very expensive for companies to set up teams who can intervene when issues occur, or better, intervene when issues are detected. Belarusian startup Vibrobox offers comprehensive vibration condition monitoring solutions for industrial machines and equipment. First, they install vibration sensors and telemetry systems in the equipment. Second, the data is collected, transferred to a centralized system for analysis. Third, their platform creates short and detailed reports about the equipment that can be accessed through the web or mobile. Finally, based on the data, they either assign an expert to intervene or have set automated actions for more common issues.
Machine Vision – Overall Equipment Efficiency
For large companies with multiple factories located in different parts of the world, plant-level data is rarely analyzed in a centralized manner. Information about the facilities, manpower, and the time taken for processes are vital for a company to optimize and streamline their production process. Moreover, factories do waste a lot of material during production, leading to higher procurement costs. Considering all these factors, startups have begun offering Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) solutions that can present the combined plant-level data that can be accessed by the top executives on their own. Indonesian startup Machine Vision develops comprehensive OEE solutions that cover the entire production capabilities of a company. Managers can monitor OEE and asset availability from all their plants in a single dashboard. At the plant level, they run root cause analysis and make transparent the processes that take place. They also offer production line monitoring to reduce wastage and downtime while improving quality and performance.
What About The Other 428 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence for your Proof of Concept (PoC), partnership, or investment targets. The 5 startups showcased above are promising examples out of 433 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria and collaboration strategy, get in touch.
