Material Impact establishes companies dedicated to transforming advancements in material science and deep technology into products.

Material Impact

ABB Ventures, the business-led venture capital investment framework of ABB, looks for breakthrough technology companies aligned with ABB’s goal to write the future of industrial electrification and automation. Since its formation in 2009, ABB Ventures, formerly known as ABB Technology Ventures (ATV), has deployed around $500 million into startups spanning a range of sectors including robotics, industrial IoT, AI/machine learning, energy transition, cybersecurity, electric mobility, smart buildings, and distributed energy. For more information, visit www.abb.com/ventures Feel free to reach out to our business-led venture capital teams: • ABB Robotics & Automation Ventures (ABB RA Ventures) • ABB Electrification Ventures (ABB EL Ventures) • ABB Motion Ventures (ABB MO Ventures)

ABB Ventures

Haiyin Capital is a China based VC firm actively investing into US based hi-tech companies. With the strong industrial background of its general partners, Haiyin Capital helps its portfolio companies to achieve fast growth by leveraging its China resources, including penetrating China market, docking with China supply chain, as well as further fund raising from China.

Haiyin Capital

Taylor Ventures is the venture arm of Taylor Farms that provides financial and asset management services.

Taylor Ventures

Scale Venture Partners is a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on intelligent business software with a Scaling Platform that has helped companies like Box, Bill.com, Hubspot, Docusign, JFrog, and WalkMe move from founder-led growth to a repeatable go-to-market machine. ScaleVP partners with entrepreneurs to support accelerated growth from the first customer to market leadership.

Scale Venture Partners

Hyperplane Venture Capital is an investment firm focused on exceptional founders building machine intelligence and data companies. They partner with exceptional founders who are leveraging machine intelligence, sensor technology, and cloud computing to solve the world’s hardest problems uncovering the underlying structure for each problem and creating solutions at the nexus of perception, communication, intelligence, and insight. The company was founded by Vivjan Myrto, John Murphy and Brendan Kohler in 2015; and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

Hyperplane

ABB is engaged in power and automation technologies. The company provides a range of products, systems, solutions, and services. Its power businesses focus on power transmission, distribution, and power-plant automation and serve electric, gas and water utilities, as well as industrial and commercial customers. Its automation businesses serve a range of industries with measurement, control, protection, and process optimization applications. It operates in approximately 100 countries across four regions: Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). During the year ended December 31, 2011, the business consisted of five divisions: Power Products, Power Systems, Discrete Automation and Motion, Low Voltage Products and Process Automation. On January 26, 2011, the company acquired Baldor Electric Company (Baldor). In May 2011, it purchased a controlling interest in United States-based Validus DC Systems.

Taylor Farms' high quality salads and vegetables begin with high quality farming families. Since the beginning we’ve partnered with over 100 family growers across the country; several have been farming in the Salinas Valley since the early 1920’s.  Many say farmers were America’s first environmentalists. This continues to be true today. The land is our growers' livelihood. They are committed to using sustainable farming practices to grow the finest quality vegetables and preserve their land in order to pass onto the next generation of farmers.

Taylor Farms

Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley is a venture capital firm that invests in the robotics, food, and AgTech industry. The firm invests in early-stage companies that have product and customer validation. Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley (YMVSV) was founded in 2015 by Hiro Saijou and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States.

Yamaha Motor Ventures

Calibrate Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in start-ups. The firm is a partner-only firm with no junior investment professionals. It leverages a community of investors, founders, and partners who help deliver powerful results. Jason Schoettler and Kevin Dunlap co-founded it in 2016 in Pasadena, California.

Calibrate Ventures

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

Honeywell is a Fortune 100 company that invents and manufactures technologies to address tough challenges linked to global macrotrends such as safety, security, and energy. With approximately 129,000 employees worldwide, including more than 19,000 engineers and scientists, we have an unrelenting focus on quality, delivery, value, and technology in everything we make and do.

Honeywell Ventures

Yamaha Motor is a producer of automotive products. They provide products that include motorcycles, outboards, waverunners, golf cars, e-bike systems, power products, industrial robots, and SMT assembly systems.

Yamaha Motor

FANUC's businesses were founded in 1956 when it started to develop numerical controls (NCs) and servo systems. Since its founding, FANUC has always emphasized research and development in its management. FANUC is a group of companies, principally FANUC Corporation of Japan, Fanuc America Corporation of Rochester Hills, Michigan, USA, and FANUC Robotics Europe SA of Luxembourg, that provide automation products and services such as robotics and computer numerical control systems.

GM-FANUC Robotics

Scale AI develops a data-oriented platform that provides training and validation data for artificial intelligence applications. The company's LiDAR, video, and image annotation APIs allow self-driving, drone, and robotics teams at companies like Lyft, OpenAI, Zoox, Pinterest, and Airbnb to focus on building differentiated models vs. labeling data.

Scale AI

Tyson Ventures is the investment arm of Tyson Foods. We aim to be the strategic partner of choice for disruptive innovators transforming the food industry, and provide sustainable nutrition to a growing global population. Our current areas of interest focus on emerging proteins, technology enablers and sustainability. Let’s build the future of food... together.

Tyson Ventures

Marel is the leading global provider of advanced processing systems and services to the Poultry, Meat and Fish industries. We offer the convenience of a single source to meet every need.

Marel

Johnsonville Ventures is a venture capital firm.

Johnsonville Ventures

Oxipital AI

Oxipital AI specializes in visual AI solutions that enhance efficiency and sustainability in manufacturing. The platform addresses operational challenges by enabling real-time insights, improving product quality, and increasing throughput. By simplifying implementation, Oxipital AI empowers manufacturers to leverage their data effectively and optimize production workflows. Oxpital AI was previously known as Soft Robotics.

Oxipital AI (Formerly known as Soft Robotics) offers AI- vision technologies for robotic process automation and product inspection in critical industries such as food processing, agriculture, and consumer goods production.

Using data and automation to achieve 24/7 production.

Smart Factory

Oxipital AI 

Oxipital AI Partners with Stäubli Robotics

NVIDIA

To improve gripping capabilities for the picking and placement of foods for packaging by utilizing NVIDIA Isaac Sim for synthetic data generation and 3D renderings.

Companies that monitor the manufacturing equipment and assembly lines.

Ossid

To integrate technologies targeting food industry applications. Soft Robotics’ mGripAI platform will be integrated with Quest's primary product handling system and Ossid’s flexible tray packaging solutions, which will enable the picking of irregular and delicate food items from a bulk of items directly.

Oxipital AI (Formerly known as Soft Robotics) offers AI- vision technologies for robotic process automation and product inspection in critical industries such as food processing, agriculture, and consumer goods production.In August 2024, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/243103">announced the sale of its gripper business assets</a> to the Schmalz Group and rebranded itself as Oxipital AI, shifting the company's focus towards the development and commercialization of its visual AI solutions.Key customers and partnershipsThe company launched a Preferred System Integrator Program in 2021 with several partners including Quest Industrial, Assatec Robotics, Boston Conveyor &amp; Automation Corporation, JMP Solutions, Applied Manufacturing Technologies, AMP Automation, SELO , and PATTYN France.

Avathon (formerly SparkCognition) offers a suite of AI-powered data analytics solutions for businesses, specializing in the industrial sector. The company’s offerings include: 1) Industrial AI Suite, which enables users to connect datasets with configurable AI models, identify and contextualize risks to equipment, analyze maintenance actions, monitor performance, and visualize multi-asset systems, without requiring coding experience, and 2) Visual AI Advisor, which leverages computer vision to analyze real-time data from existing camera infrastructure for a number of different use cases, such as safety monitoring, visual inspection, and machine monitoring.&nbsp;In May 2023, the company launched the Generative AI Suite, a solution specifically tailored for the industrial sector, which enables users to build and deploy custom large language models (LLMs) on either private or on-premise cloud environments. Users also autonomously augment data sets by generating text, images, audio, and other signals and create imagery for use in simulated real-world environments. It claims to&nbsp;reduce the foundational information needed for decision-making by up to 20x.Since 2021, the company has acquired a number of companies to further develop its product offering. This includes Indian visual AI startup&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9370?industryIds=6">Integration Wizards</a> (March 2022) to expand its intellectual property (IP) portfolio to improve vision capabilities as well as digital knowledge platform Maana (July 2021), software developer for the renewable energy industry Ensemble Energy (May 2021), and financial technology company AIM2 (February 2021).&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/34997">In October 2024,&nbsp;</a>Avathon unveiled a new system-level AI platform that provides solutions for managing and monitoring critical industrial infrastructure. The AI platform addresses various industrial issues, including maximizing the uptime of capital-intensive assets, enabling efficient manufacturing ramp-up, and ensuring worker safety in industrial settings.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsSparkCognition’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.&nbsp;

Avathon

Sight Machine offers a manufacturing data platform that captures and contextualizes data from factories to deliver a system-wide view of the manufacturing process as well as individual assets. The platform transforms raw plant data as well as data from machines of various manufacturers into a standardized data foundation and provides actionable insights for a range of use cases such as predictive maintenance, quality improvement, and capacity utilization. Users can analyze all assets, data sources, and processes by creating digital twins, thereby improving processes, quality, and productivity.&nbsp;In October 2022, Sight Machine introduced <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13696?industryIds=6">Blueprint</a>, a tool developed in collaboration with NVIDIA and Microsoft, which uses AI for high-speed, automated data labeling. The company claims that this solution enables manufacturers to analyze up to 100x more of their data than traditional methods.&nbsp; Key customers and partnershipsSight Machine caters to at least 15 verticals, such as food and beverage, electronics, and automotive. Its global clientele includes Fortune 500 companies such as Nissan, Heineken, Westrock Co., and Asian Paints.&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21955">In September 2023</a>, Sight Machine partnered with LS Electric, a power and automation solutions provider, to create an AI-driven Big Data analytics platform tailored for the manufacturing and energy sectors. In December 2023, the company went on to partner with Teamviewer, a remote collaboration solutions provider, to offer a joint product that combines the latter’s remote connectivity and industrial AR solutions with its real-time data and analysis for industrial processes.&nbsp;Sight Machine has established partnerships with large global companies such as Microsoft, Google, Databricks, Siemens, and AWS to integrate with their data analytics platforms and Fujitsu to help with wide deployments. In July 2023, the platform also became a certified Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing partner and released Factory CoPilot, integrating its Manufacturing Data Platform with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to offer GenAI capabilities for manufacturing analysis and real-time insights. The company went on to launch the<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/33441"> Sight Machine connector for Databricks</a> (in September 2024), to integrate its manufacturing data platform with the latter’s data intelligence platform.

Sight Machine

Overview offers smart cameras and AI to enable users 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.&nbsp;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. Moreover, it reportedly offers 100% visual traceability and an over 99.9% uptime.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of September 2024, the solution was used by a number of enterprises, including Schaeffler, ThermoFischer, Honda, Caterpillar, and Tyson.&nbsp;

Overview

Bright Machines combines robotics, machine learning, and computer vision to provide automation applications for the electronics manufacturing industry. Its flagship product is the “Bright Machines Microfactory,” a pre-integrated, programmable assembly line that can be deployed in existing and new production facilities. The Microfactory runs on the company's proprietary “Brightware” cloud-based software platform, offering a scalable solution that enables manufacturers to enhance supply chain resilience and adapt production capacity according to market demand. This software-defined manufacturing allows factories to change the products that they manufacture if needed. The company offers its service on a subscription-based microfactory-as-a-service (MaaS) business model.The company reportedly generated USD 83 million in revenue in 2021. In May 2021, Bright Machines reported that its revenue doubled each year since its inception (2018) and forecasts a 5-year CAGR (2020-2025) of over 84%.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsBright Machines served over 40 manufacturing companies as of October 2022.The company collaborated with Microsoft Azure in May 2024 to leverage the latter’s infrastructure to deliver a full-stack environment for all stages of the manufacturing lifecycle.The company also has distribution/sales partnerships with Anstar Corporation (April 2021), SMT Capital (April 2021), MaRC Technologies (May 2021), PAC Global (May 2021), Restronics (June 2021), <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/3618">BROCK Electronics</a> (June 2021), <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/4740">Murray Percival</a> (July 2021), <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/4412">Competitive Edge Manufacturing Equipment</a> (CEME; July 2021).Key competitors: None comparable (Bright Machines is the only company in the smart factory industry that offers microfactories-as-a-service, which combines intelligent software with adaptive hardware to automate manufacturing processes.)

Bright Machines

Augury offers AI-based predictive maintenance solutions. It uses wireless halo sensors to record the vibration, temperature, and magnetism of machines and upload them to the cloud, where AI will be used to diagnose faults and predict potential malfunctions. The system can predict failures and provide early, actionable insights on equipment status, allowing companies to plan maintenance more effectively. Augury offers Machine Health solutions for Critical Assets (MH CR) and Supporting Equipment (MH SE).&nbsp;Furthermore, it offers a warranty policy (one-of-a-kind in the predictive maintenance field) for up to USD 100,000 of repairs and replacements if the software fails to successfully predict machine faults. The company reported that its machine health (predictive maintenance) solutions can deliver an ROI of 3x–10x. In December 2023, the company launched a product loss guarantee solution, in partnership with HSB, which covers a broader range of production-related assets, including protection against production loss due to mechanical failures.&nbsp;In May 2022, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10286">Augury acquired Seebo,</a> another Israeli company that offers predictive quality and yield solutions for manufacturers to identify process-driven inefficiencies.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAugury has built a customer base consisting of companies such as Hershey’s, Colgate-Palmolive, Grundfos, Heineken, Danone, and Bausch Health. The company announced an insurance plan for its customers in 2020, partly as a strategy to attract more customers. Augury’s Machine Health Solutions are integrated with PTC’s ThingWorx IoT through a partnership in July 2020 and are available in the PTC Marketplace. In October 2021, it partnered with Baker Hughes, a provider of energy technology solutions, which integrated Augury’s solutions into its System 1 software and asset performance management (APM) solutions. It went on to integrate Baker Hughes’ “Ranger Pro” wireless condition monitoring sensor and “Cordant” gateway into its platform in June 2024.&nbsp;In November 2023, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/23991">Augury partnered with IFS Ultimo</a>, a provider of cloud-based enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions, to offer machine health monitoring and asset management workflows for industries. It went on to partner with DSV, a logistics solutions provider, in March 2024, to introduce a new Parts As a Service (PaaS) solution. The solution utilizes machine health to predict machine faults and enables users to automate the procurement of replacement parts.

Augury

Companies that provide robotic fleet management software, robotic automation software, and inspection software.

Companies that provide an industrial IoT platform across factories as the primary offering.

Companies that provide cobots, sorting/ picking robotics, modular production robotics, and microfactories.

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

Companies that provide autonomous mobile robots (AMR) or self-driving vehicles (SDV) used in manufacturing/ factory operations.

Companies that provide predictive maintenance as a primary offering. 

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

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 
 Soft Robotics has sold its robotic gripping systems business to the Schmalz Group and renamed itself as Oxipital AI.
 The company is now focusing on the development and commercialization of its visual AI solutions for product inspection and robotic picking.
 
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 Soft Robotics launched <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/7942"> mGripAI </a> technology in January 2022, specifically targeting the food industry. Later, the technology was <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/10564"> expanded </a> to the consumer goods, ecommerce, and logistics sectors. This divestiture and reform comes under the leadership of President and CEO Mark Chiappetta, who was <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/26230"> appointed </a> in February this year.&nbsp;

Oxipital AI

EDGE Insights

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless