Mercury is an early-stage venture capital platform that seeks out transformative software startups, led by exceptional founders, in communities across America. To date, Mercury has created over $9 billion of value with an operationally-focused venture investment strategy helping startups achieve rapid, sustainable growth. Mercury partners with first-time entrepreneurs who require support and guidance, as well as seasoned founders seeking to leverage the assets and talent of our growth partner network.

Mercury

IA Ventures is a venture capital firm that specializes in seed-stage investments in the fintech sector.  The firm seeks to invest in companies operating in information technology, e-commerce, software, financial services, healthcare, media, big data, and business services sectors.

IA Ventures

Huron River Ventures invests in early-stage technologies for antiquated industries including Energy, Agriculture, and Transportation.

Huron River Ventures

FundersClub focuses on Seed and early stage investments. Investments include Coinbase, Instacart, Flexport, Le Tote, Teespring, Memebox, GitLab. FundersClub is the world's first online venture capital platform. Backed by Y Combinator, First Round Capital, Spark Capital, Intel Capital, Draper, Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis Ventures, and more; FundersClub Inc. was founded in 2012 and is based in the United States.

FundersClub

eLab Ventures is an early stage technology venture capital fund created to capitalize on the growth of emerging entrepreneurial markets outside of Silicon Valley and to create bridges to those markets to seek startups with disruptive innovations, exceptional teams, and capital efficient business models that have the potential to serve large markets.  eLab is strategically based both in Ann Arbor, to leverage innovation and talent in the Midwest, and in Silicon Valley, to leverage customers, business development, funding sources and a strong network of experienced advisors.  We are passionate about nurturing world-changing ideas by connecting entrepreneurs to capital and expertise needed to build great, disruptive companies!

eLab Ventures

Orfin, a global network of value-added investors, seeks to fund the world's most creative technical innovators. They love data, security & the :cloud:.   Their base is a family investment office with experience in over 50 sophisticated private equity transactions. Recent venture investments include Remitly, Sookasa, Concept.io (Acquired by Apple), Crossbar, Compose, Sight Machine, Kurbo, Augury Systems, Vicarious and CloudHelix.

Orfin Ventures

O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV) is in the business of funding disruptors, innovators, and hackers of the status quo. From open source to the early days of the web and its recent resurgence, O'Reilly Media has played a key role as trend spotter and advocate for putting world-changing technologies on the map. OATV effort is  to bring the legacy, resources, and relationships of O'Reilly to each investment they make.

Oreilly AlphaTech Ventures

Pritzker Group Venture Capital helps entrepreneurs build market-leading technology companies at every stage of their growth. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has worked side-by-side with entrepreneurs at more than 100 companies, building partnerships based on trust and integrity. Its proprietary capital structure allows for tremendous flexibility, and our experienced team of investment professionals and entrepreneurs offers companies a vast network of strategic relationships and guidance.  Successful exits in recent years include Fleetmatics (NYSE: FLTX), SinglePlatform (acquired by Constant Contact), Zinch (acquired by Chegg), Playdom (acquired by Disney), LeftHand Networks (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), and TicketsNow (acquired by Ticketmaster).

Pritzker Group Venture Capital

GE Ventures combines capital, technical, and commercial services. They invest in the healthcare and life sciences, energy and mobility, manufacturing and supply chain, enterprise productivity applications, digital infrastructure, and frontier technologies sectors.

GE Ventures

The hardest thing for early stage B2B Startups is to find the first customer who can validate your Product Market Fit and grow your business together. Since 2011, they have created more than 100 partnerships between startups and Fortune 500 companies by leveraging their CXO network with Global Conglomerates.

DNX Ventures

Jump Capital is a thesis-led, sector-focused, and operating-centric venture capital firm specializing in Seed/Series A. Jump invests in data-driven technology companies within the FinTech, B2B SaaS, IT/Data Infrastructure, and Media sectors. With offices in Chicago and New York, Jump provides advocacy and support through a platform of institutional-level resources for entrepreneurs.  Jump's philosophy is to align with talented management teams that desire a trusted partner with real-world operating experience and a firm with an operating platform targeting initial investment checks between $2M to $10M.

Jump Capital

Two Roads Group is a business building, investment and advisory firm focused on digital and advanced technology in industry

Two Roads Group

Tekfen Ventures invests in early-stage companies that have uniquely impactful technologies and business models we believe will change the world. Our primary investment focus is in industrial and enterprise software and hardware technologies.   As the corporate venture arm of Tekfen Holdings, a multinational industrial conglomerate, they leverage their unique assets and resources to be a true partner and strategic ally to their portfolio companies.

Tekfen Ventures

Momenta is the leading Industrial Impact venture capital + growth firm. We accelerate entrepreneurs and leaders devoted to the digitization of energy, manufacturing, smart spaces, and supply chains. Since 2012, our team of deep industry operators have made over 100 investments in entrepreneurs and helped scale over 150 industry leaders via our award-winning executive search and strategic advisory practices.

Momenta

E.ON is an international energy company that focuses on innovative customer solutions, renewable energy, and intelligent energy networks. The diversified business consists of renewables, conventional and decentralized power generation, natural gas, energy trading, retail, and distribution. They supply around 26 million customers with energy. With their broad energy mix, they own almost 68 GW generation capacity and they are one of the world's leading renewables companies. They have an ambitious objective to make energy cleaner and better wherever they operate. With their strategy cleaner & better energy, we're transforming E.ON into a global provider of specialized energy solutions which will benefit their employees, customers, and investors alike. The development of technologies and regulatory boundary conditions, as well as the changes in customer behavior, are main drivers for a sustainable transformation of the energy system. It is still unclear how the future energy system might look like, but E.ON assumes the following trends: Changes in power generation - increasing additions in renewable capacity, decrease in generation and increase in flexibility for conventional power plants. ''Decarbonization'' of heating and transport - operation of electrical components which are supplied by increasingly CO2 free generated electricity (e-vehicles, heat pumps) Decoupling of generation and consumption - the consumption of electricity will be synchronized with generation to some extent via storage and demand side management. Distributed energy - the share of distributed generation will grow, e.g. photovoltaics, micro CHP (combined heat and power), which can even serve as reserve margin in times of low renewable electricity production. Integrated infrastructure - an integrated infrastructure for information and communication will be the backbone of such a distributed energy system and links together the various components in residential areas, offices, and industry. E.ON was founded on June 16, 2000, and is headquartered in Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

E.ON

Sony Innovation Fund is the corporate venture capital arm of Sony that invests and engages in early-stage companies. Beyond investment, our mission is to provide resources such as access to the broader Sony world and its global network, as well as collaborate with startups to:  • Foster business creation in related lines of business and new areas of interest to Sony  • Catalyze a talented and passionate team  Sony innovation Fund was founded in 2016.

Sony Innovation Fund

LS Group develops electric power transmission, materials, machinery, and components for industries. They offer electrolytic copper, precious metals, and rare metals as base materials.

LS Group

Sight Machine

Sight Machine specializes in manufacturing analytics and used by Global 500 companies to make better, faster decisions about their operations. Sight Machine's analytics platform, purpose-built for discrete and process manufacturing, uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced analytics to help address critical challenges in quality and productivity throughout the enterprise. The platform is powered by the industry’s only Plant Digital Twin, which enables real-time visibility and actionable insights for every machine, line, and plant throughout an enterprise. It was founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, California.

<div>
  <p>
    Sight Machine provides a digital manufacturing platform enabled by AI. It creates a digital twin of both assets and processes to help manufacturers improve processes, quality, and productivity. It can also gather data from machines of various manufacturers supplying actionable insights for predictive maintenance, quality improvement, capacity utilization, among other benefits. In October 2022, the company released 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13696?industryIds=6">
      <u>Sight Machine Blueprint</u>
    </a>
     to offer manufacturers with advanced data analytics solutions.
  </p>
  <p>
    Sight Machine has established partnerships with large global companies such as Microsoft, Google, and  Amazon Web Services (AWS) for their cloud platforms and Fujitsu (system integrator) to help with wide deployments. Sight Machine, which caters to at least 15 verticals, such as food and beverage, electronics, and automotive, is on the move to expand into more verticals. It has global clients of Fortune 500-caliber, including Nissan, Heineken, Westrock Co., and Asian Paints. Sight Machine&rsquo;s most recent funding round was Series C funding worth USD 29.4 million in April 2019, led by LS Group. The funds were to be used to expedite the company&rsquo;s growth.
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Funding and financials</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    In December 2023, 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25200">
      <u>Sight Machine received a low double-digit million euro investmen</u>
    </a>
    t from TeamViewer to improve industrial digitalization and enhance manufacturing efficiency.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Using data and automation to achieve 24/7 production.

Smart Factory

<div>
  <p>
    Righthand Robotics provides autonomous robotic picking solutions called RightPick. It utilizes a smart gripper, machine learning, and computer vision to imitate human hand-eye coordination. It develops software and hardware for predictable order fulfillment at scale with flexibility. The company&rsquo;s solutions can be utilized in industries such as apparel, grocery, pharmaceuticals, and electronics. It is based in Massachusetts and has an office in Tokyo, Japan. The company is focused on expanding its European operations, having opened an office in Frankfurt, Germany, in March 2020.
  </p>
  <p>
    In 2019, the company launched the second generation of its piece-picking robotic solution, &ldquo;RightPick2,&rdquo; which includes enhancements to hardware and software. The upgrades included a fifth-generation industrial gripper with the capacity to lift up to 4.4 lbs, new depth-sensing cameras from Intel, and an improved arm from Universal Robots. In 2021, the company launched &ldquo;RightPick 3,&rdquo; with improved picking speeds, capacity to handle a broader item range, and with capabilities for dense packing and damage-free item handling. 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25875">
      <u>In January 2024,</u>
    </a>
     it launched &ldquo;RightPick 4&rdquo; with enhanced AI, sensor suite, and new hardware that allow the system to extend its item-picking range, handle items more efficiently, and enhance system autonomy.
  </p>
  <p>
    In February 2022, the company raised USD 66 million in a Series C round bringing its total funding to USD 100.3 million. The funds were expected to be used to accelerate product and business development, scale global presence by expanding the partner network, expand offices, and acquiring new talent to support overall growth plans. Subsequently, in March 2022, the company announced the launch of its 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9203?industryIds=6">
      partner integrator program,
    </a>
     to complement its robotic piece-picking solutions with warehouse technologies and solution providers to cater to the broad ecommerce order fulfillment market. In May 2022, AutoStore integrator in South Korea Asetec also joined the program.
  </p>
</div>


RightHand Robotics

<div>
  <p>
    SparkCognition is an AI analytics startup offering four deep learning product solutions: Darwin (automated model-building software), DeepArmor (AI-powered cybersecurity), DeepNLP (NLP solution), and SparkPredict (analytics solution utilizing sensor data). These products deliver actionable insights, predict machine issues via historical maintenance data, and provide security from cyber threats. These products can be deployed across multiple industries, such as manufacturing, defense, utilities, oil and gas, and aviation. 
  </p>
  <p>
    SparkCognition’s clientele comprises large companies such as Boeing, Hitachi, and British Petroleum. It has also built partnerships with Google for cloud platform services, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise to offer AI predictive maintenance on HPE Edgeline Converged Edge Systems, and OSIsoft to integrate SparkCognition’s machine learning technology with OSIsoft’s PI system to improve data and process data analytics.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company’s most recent funding round was Series D funding worth USD 123 million in January 2022 from March Capital, Doha Venture Capital, B. Riley Venture Capital, AEI Horizon X, Temasek, and several others. The funds were intended to be used to invest in R&D, accelerate sales and marketing, facilitate organic and inorganic growth, and also for the working capital requirements of the company. In March 2022, the company acquired Indian visual AI startup 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9370?industryIds=6">
      Integration Wizards
    </a>
     to expand its intellectual property (IP) portfolio to improve vision capabilities. The company has reported a 2x increase in revenue YoY in 2021.
  </p>
</div>


SparkCognition

<div>
  <p>
    Kinta AI provides an automated production planning platform for manufacturing that uses advanced AI algorithms and simulation techniques. Using existing operational data, a SaaS solution is deployed that can be integrated with existing management execution systems (MES), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and Industry 4.0 tools in the factory. The software looks to have cross-functional communication across the factory to eliminate any bottlenecks that delay resolving breakdowns. Kinta AI has partnered with Flex (an electronics manufacturer) and BASF (a chemical company).
  </p>
  <p>
    Kinta AI’s most recent financing was a Series A funding round worth USD 5.5 million in April 2021 led by Lachy Groom’s LGF and Shine Capital. The funds will be utilized to scale operations in existing general industrial client factories and implement the Kinta AI platform in new client factories.
  </p>
</div>


Kinta AI

<div>
  <p>
    Overview uses smart cameras and AI to monitor manufacturing equipment and robots and identify defects in real time before significant damage or downtime is incurred. The technology has a repository of machine data so that there is a traceable visual record of all units. With AI, the cause of production issues and quality concerns can be identified either on-site or remotely. The company claims over time, the deep learning computer vision algorithms allow for any sudden substantial increases in production and improved yields. 
    
    <b>Funding and financials</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    In February 2022, the company raised USD 10 million in series A funding to be used to expand operations and business reach.
  </p>
</div>


Overview

Creates digital twins of assets and processes to help manufacturers improve processes, quality, and productivity

Connected devices, sensors, IoT, and analytics are used to optimize factory operations

Uses advanced robotics, AMRs, and related software to improve the efficiency of factory operations

Uses connected devices and sensors to gather data—IIoT, predictive analysis, and equipment inspection

Uses AI/ML to analyze data for predictive maintenance and AI-based vision systems for line inspections

5G standard allows for faster reaction times and supports high connection densities

Uses edge computing for data processing at the edge

Some companies in the predictive maintenance space uses generative AI to generate possible alternative scenarios

Companies that focus on data analytics for operations streamlining and process optimization, and may offer predictive maintenance.

Sight Machine

Smart Factory

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Recent Updates

Sight Machine and Cybus receive investment from TeamViewer

Sight Machine partners with LS Electric to develop AI-powered Big Data analytics platform

Sight Machine releases Blueprint for advanced data analytics in collaboration with NVIDIA and Microsoft

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