We're excited to announce a milestone in Fero's growth: the closing of our $9 million series A round, led by Innovation Endeavors, with participation from Deutsche Invest VC. This investment will help us achieve our goal of bringing machine learning to the factory world, helping manufacturers across industries reduce waste and emissions and boost profitability.
From the press release:
More than half of leaders in the manufacturing and utilities sector expect artificial intelligence to control high-value assets such as industrial plants, equipment, machines and its processes in the next five years, according to Next-Gen Industrial AI - and due to the pandemic, the industry observed a steady increase in artificial intelligence and machine learning adoption across industries including energy, manufacturing, heavy industry, infrastructure, and transportation sectors.
"At Fero Labs, we develop our technology around the needs of customers, delivering the best of machine learning, AI technologies and scalable automated infrastructure," said Berk Birand, CEO of Fero Labs. "We're excited to have the support of investors like Innovation Endeavors and Deutsche Invest VC to help us expand and adapt to our increased demand, and to help businesses of all industries thrive in this new normal."
Fero Labs enhances production processes and increases efficiency, all while improving the overall manufacturing quality. Its comprehensive explainable machine learning software is unique in that it provides plant operators, with little to no data science background, access to powerful machine learning algorithms, enabling them to understand the root cause of any issues they are exploring. Plant experts use Fero Labs to automatically generate explainable ML models that take into account key process parameters and variations. These models can be deployed in real-time to ensure that the plant operates at peak performance by continuously adjusting to the process and market changes. Once the benefit of having Fero for a use case is verified, it can be easily scaled across other plants to maximize the overall profitability of the entire business.
"Fero Labs equips industrial manufacturing professionals — like process and chemical engineers — with cutting-edge machine learning capabilities. Fero gives these experts new abilities to identify root causes of issues, predict outcomes earlier on, and drive optimal performance in a dynamic environment," said Sam Smith-Eppsteiner, Partner at Innovation Endeavors. "Not only does Fero Labs drive top-line throughput and bottom-line profitability for manufacturers, but the product also helps the world's largest producers become more sustainable. They're helping companies minimize emissions, increased recycled input, and reduce waste."
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and global industrial restrictions, Fero Labs grew 400% in 2020, emphasizing the increased need to create sustainable solutions for the entire industrial sector. After implementing Fero Labs, its customers saw an average increased profitability of 10%, while reducing emissions. Fero Labs' software supports numerous industries including consumer goods, automotive, steel and chemical industries in particular through lighthouse users like Henkel, Volvo Trucks, Gerdau, and Covestro. The company was founded to connect the missing link of applying machine learning to the industrial world directly, and continues to develop its core technology to address the specific requirements of customers to improve the future of industrial manufacturing.
