Kitchener-based Praemo, which uses industrial IoT data to provide insights to enterprises, has raised a $3.5 million Series A.
The round was led by McRock Capital. Praemo’s Razor platform uses artificial intelligence to detect problems in a company’s operations, identifying abnormal equipment before it becomes costly or disruptive. So far, the technology has been used in automotive, industrial equipment manufacturing, injection molding, and food and beverage operations.
“Praemo knows how to provide prescriptive insights to plant operators and managers.”
Praemo will use the funding for product development and expanding market reach. The funding announcement comes a day after the startup announced the hire of Paul Boris, who is now acting as executive vice president and CRO. In the past, Boris has acted as Global Vice President at SAP and CIO of advanced manufacturing strategy at GE. He will define strategy and lead growth targets for Praemo.
“It was critical for us to validate the impact of our AI-based solution Razor in real operations before taking it to the broader market,” said Michael Martinez, CEO and co-founder of Praemo. “Now that we’ve done that, closing this round with the team at McRock really validates not only the critical need for this solution, but the fact we’re delivering on the promise of Industry 4.0 and the IIoT.”
Whitney Rockley, co-founder and managing partner of McRock Capital, told BetaKit that sensors and connectivity are becoming more pervasive in industrial sectors, meaning that the “body” of IoT is largely built. For these companies, analytics that can recommend actions can reduce downtime and costs.
“Praemo is truly different than the other analytics companies we see because their key team is made up of deep industry domain experts who intimately understand asset performance optimization in industrial environments,” said Rockley. “Praemo knows how to provide prescriptive insights to plant operators and managers in a way that speaks their language and truly improves throughput, quality and overall profitability.”
Image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Ant Rozetsky.