Canaan is an early stage venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs with visionary ideas. With $5B under management, a diversified fund and over 190 exits to date, Canaan has invested in some of the world's leading technology and healthcare companies over the past 30 years. Canaan’s focus areas include fintech, enterprise/cloud, marketplaces, frontier tech, biopharma, digital health, and medtech.

Canaan Partners

Webb Investment Network is an investment firm that particularly in mobile, consumer Internet, and cloud applications. With its Affiliate Network, the firm draws not only from Maynard’s experience and insight but from those CEOs, CTOs, founders, and investors who make up the WIN Affiliate Network to provide our portfolio companies with on-demand advice and support.

Webb Investment Network

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that engages in consumer, enterprise, technology, and cleantech markets. It focuses on seed, early-stage, later-stage, expansion-stage, start-ups, growth companies, and incubation, and specializes in debt financing for start-ups and growth companies. Lightspeed Venture Partners invests in various sectors that include enterprise, consumer, big data, bitcoin, enterprise technology, cleantech, mobile, internet, financial technology, cloud solutions, e-commerce, storage, media, networking, energy, and software, software-as-a-service, information technology, biotechnology, and social. It mainly invests in countries such as the United States, Europe, Israel, China, and India.

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Airbus Ventures invests in autonomous mobility, electrification, low-carbon economy, advanced materials, manufacturing systems, next-generation computing, sensing, security, and beyond. AV continuously fosters close and trusted relationships with other leading venture firms, actively offering hands-on expertise to our portfolio companies. We proudly leverage the richly dense networks of our mothership Airbus and its supply chain, as well as the wider ecosystem of our Limited Partners. We work with multiple LPs – including Airbus SE, Development Bank of Japan Inc., Mitsubishi HC Capital, Fuyo General Lease Co., Ltd., and McKinley Capital – to better enable our entrepreneurs to grow and succeed.

Airbus Ventures

Toyota Ventures is a San Francisco Bay Area-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups from around the world. Founded in July 2017, its mission is to discover what’s next for Toyota by helping startups bring disruptive technologies and business models to market quickly. With more than $500 million in assets under management, the firm’s funds include the Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund focused on artificial intelligence, cloud computing, autonomy, mobility, robotics, smart cities, digital health, financial technologies, materials, and energy; and the Toyota Ventures Climate Fund focused on innovative solutions for carbon neutrality.

Toyota Ventures

Orillion is a global investment firm that focuses on privately held technology-enabled businesses.

Orillion

AGCO Corporation (AGCO) is a manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment and related replacement parts globally. The Company sells a range of agricultural equipment, including tractors, combines, self-propelled sprayers, hay tools, forage equipment and implements. It also manufactures and distributes grain storage and handling equipment systems, as well as protein production systems. Its products are recognized in the agricultural equipment industry and are marketed under a range of brands, including Challenger, Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Valtra. The Company distributes its products through a combination of approximately 3,100 independent dealers and distributors in more than 140 countries. In September 2013, Grain Systems, Inc. (GSI), a global brand of the Company announced that it has purchased Johnson System Inc. (JSI), manufacturer of catwalks, towers and support structures based in Marshall, Michigan.

AGCO

InMotion Ventures is the venture capital arm of Jaguar Land Rover.  The team collaborates with subject matter experts at JLR to identify and invest in startups shaping the future of the automotive industry. The fund allocates capital and resources to purpose-driven businesses aligned with Jaguar Land Rover’s global strategy, and prioritises environmental and societal impact alongside strategic & financial returns.

InMotion Ventures

Apex.AI

Apex.AI specializes in developing operating systems for autonomous vehicles. Its software products are based on open-source software such as ROS or Eclipse iceoryx.

Apex.AI’s Apex.Grace offers a software development kit (SDK) for smart machines, IoT, and mobility applications. The company targets original OEM developers who need to implement complex, integrated artificial intelligence in machines or vehicles. The software serves as the foundation for smart machine operations. This includes applications like industrial automation, automotive, agriculture, and IoT.

Using data and automation to achieve 24/7 production.

Smart Factory

Sam Altman Backs New Israeli Startup Apex.AI

Apex.AI’s Apex.Grace offers a software development kit (SDK) for smart machines, IoT, and mobility applications. The company targets original OEM developers who need to implement complex, integrated artificial intelligence in machines or vehicles. The software serves as the foundation for smart machine operations. This includes applications like industrial automation, automotive, agriculture, and IoT.Funding and financialsApex.AI raised USD 56.5 million in a Series B round in December 2021 to accelerate product development and to grow into new application areas and more industries.

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 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.
 
 
 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">
 In January 2024,
 </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.
 
 
 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.
 
</div>

RightHand Robotics

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 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. 
 
 
 SparkCognition&rsquo;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&rsquo;s machine learning technology with OSIsoft&rsquo;s PI system to improve data and process data analytics.
 
 
 The company&rsquo;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&amp;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.
 
</div>

SparkCognition

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).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.

Kinta AI

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 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">
 Sight Machine Blueprint
 </a>
 to offer manufacturers with advanced data analytics solutions.
 
 
 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.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In December 2023, 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25200">
 Sight Machine received a low double-digit million euro investmen
 </a>
 t from TeamViewer to improve industrial digitalization and enhance manufacturing efficiency.
 
 
 
</div>

Sight Machine

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. Funding and financialsIn February 2022, the company raised USD 10 million in series A funding to be used to expand operations and business reach.

Overview

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 monitor the manufacturing equipment and assembly lines.

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

Apex.AI

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