Oden Technologies, an Industrial IoT company that provides manufacturing data analytics, has closed a US$10m (£7.6m) Series A round led by Atomico, with participation from existing investors including the EQT Ventures fund ("EQT Ventures") and Inbox Capital, and seed investors. Atomico CEO, and co-founder of Skype, Niklas Zennström will join the company's board.
Manufacturing – a $12tn sector globally, accounting for 16.6% of global GDP – is on the brink of a new machine age in which the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and cloud analytics are set to transform existing production processes, slash waste, drive efficiencies and increase output. Today, manufacturing industry is plagued with inefficiencies as high as 30 - 60 percent. The adoption of data analytics to drive efficiencies combats the shortage of in-house data engineering talent and lengthy project roll-outs. While industrial automation incumbents, such as Rockwell Automation, can take 12 - 18 months to roll out its analytics tools, Oden's cloud-based data analytics platform can be live 10 times faster and immediately deliver actionable insights.
Atomico's CEO and Founding Partner Niklas Zennström adds: "Major areas of inefficiency still predominate throughout the manufacturing sector, which has remained relatively untouched by digital technology. We believe that's about to change. The combination of IIoT, Big Data analytics, cloud computing and machine learning marks a new era for industry, by not only unlocking efficiencies and reducing waste of materials, but enabling smaller batch sizes, more personalised products and greater innovation too. Willem and Peter have both the scale of vision and exceptional ability to execute to be in the vanguard of this shift - and the potential to transform manufacturing."
The company's flexible IIoT devices plug into almost any kind of machine - old or new - while its software adaptors integrate data from existing ERP systems and quality control software on the manufacturing line. All this data is streamed to Oden's cloud analytics platform for the complete real-time production picture, including real-time factory floor monitoring. Due to the size of the devices and simplicity of connectivity, Oden collects data more quickly and enables customers to make sense of it much faster than competitor products.
Oden's customers in packaging, wire and cable, building products, and automotive have already benefited from a return on investment of tens of millions per year by eliminating quality issues, waste and downtime.
"Our vision is for the manufacturers to achieve 'perfect production', make things not only better, but faster, cheaper, and with less waste. Traditionally manufacturers did not have access to the right data and insights to make factories more efficient and productive. What Oden provides is data that is transparent, precise, instantaneous and above all usable, empowering our customers to build smarter factories and bring about a manufacturing renaissance," said Willem Sundblad, co-founder and CEO, Oden Technologies. "We want to democratize access to data analytics, making it easy to collect and action for anyone in the factory whether it's an engineer, a plant manager or those responsible for operations and quality control."
With the new funds, Oden will further expand its R&D and engineering teams in New York and accelerate customer growth with new sales teams in the manufacturing hubs of Illinois, Ohio and Texas. To support its advancements in machine learning and AI, Oden has hired Deepak Turaga, Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University, as VP of Data Science. Deepak previously worked at IBM as the Distinguished Research Staff Member and Manager of the AI First ML and Planning Group.
Add a Comment
No messages on this article yet