Today (Wednesday), Israeli IoT startup Augury, which uses AI to detect machine health, announced the completion of a $55 million Series D funding round. The investment was led by late-stage Israeli VC Qumra Capital, with participation from existing investors such as Eclipse Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Munich RE Venture Capital, and Qualcomm Ventures.
The tech that combats some of COVID's major challenges
Augury’s machine health analysis technology is built around a simple concept, every machine can be categorized by the sound it makes. What this means, is that machines can actually “speak”, and Augury’s technology has the ears to “listen”.
The data is continuously collected from the IoT component throughout the day, transferred to the cloud and analyzed by AI algorithms to determine the machine’s “health”. The analysis is based on comparing current data with previous IoT readings from the past and data collected from thousands of other similar machines. This way, it easily learns a machine’s behavioral pattern and can alert to malfunctions, irregular behavior, or general machine wear and tear. In addition, the company’s system provides actionable insight for machine maintenance crews on the optimal way to fix the problems.
The company states that even though the global COVID-19 crisis has paralyzed a lot of the industrial world, it also helped accelerate business for IoT startup. The company’s system, which is based on IoT components and Artificial Intelligence, has enabled users to receive continuous remote status updates related to a machine’s functionality, therefore adhering to regulations and keeping employees from being exposed. Augury notes that the virus outbreak combined with the company’s remote automation capabilities have only increased growth and sales, though the company refused to say by how much.
Augury CTO Gal Shaul explains to Geektime that since its 2019 funding round, the startup has partnered with leading machine manufacturers as part of the company’s technological integration in the industry. According to Shaul, “we continued operational expansion with industry leaders and moved to support their global industrial operations, all while developing significant improvements for our AI diagnostics that alert Augury’s customers in real-time.” Shaul also adds that Augury is working towards the expansion of industries utilizing its technology and its integration readiness, in order to optimize faster technological implementation.
Saar Yoskovitz, co-founder and CEO of Augury explained that “the funding round is a clear vote of confidence from investors in our vision and in the massive change facing the industrial market. The market is yearning for innovative digital solutions to solve complex problems from pre-and-post COVID reality.”
He continued to say that “the recent months have showcased the global dependency on supply chains and the machinery that pushes them forward. Following the global crisis, we are witnessing technological advances that previously would have taken years to complete, where now they have been cut down to a few months or even weeks.”
Augury was founded in 2011 by Gal Shaul and Saar Yoskovitz. The company has a team of over 100 employees split between its Israeli R&D center and NY offices. Including the recent round, the company has raised a total of $106 million to date. With the new funding, Augury will not only expand geographic delivery for customers but will continue to expand its engineering and development teams in Israel as well as its services and sales teams around the globe.
Augury’s customers include leading manufacturers such as Hershey’s, Colgate-Palmolive, Essity, Heineken and ICL. In the past year, Augury has more than tripled revenue under contract, while delivering 3-8x ROI for customers, usually in a matter of months.
