Queensland based industrial IoT sensor manufacturer Movus says it has expanded its business around the world and scored some big name customer wins, 12 months on from securing $4.8m in Series A funding from Blackbird Ventures, Telstra Ventures and Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar’s private investment fund Skip Capital.
The company says it has increased staff numbers from 12 to 25, expanded its R&D lab facilities and moved into a new dedicated two storey facility in Brisbane’s CBD. It claims to now have more than 50 global and regional enterprise customers including Asahi Beverages, Wesfarmers business CSBP and The University of Queensland.
Intelligent sensor for electric motors
Movus, founded in 2015, has developed and launched a sensor and associated monitoring platform, FitMachine that uses artificial intelligence to help organisations monitor, manage and maintain the condition of electric motors in industrial machinery
The FitMachine sensor attaches magnetically to the motor and monitors vibration, noise and temperature. Movus says its machine learning algorithm establishes a baseline of the equipment condition and then monitors this condition 24/7, providing an alert if these parameters deviate beyond pre-configured limits.
According to founder Brad Parsons, “There are 2.6 billion electric motors in the world using 43 percent of the planet’s electricity. If those motors and machines are not functioning efficiently, there is a measurable impact on industry and the environment.”
Movus claims its technology provides compelling return on investment by reducing the need for manual inspections and turning unplanned outages into planned situations.
A FitMachine smartphone app “makes onboarding new FitMachines and monitoring your fleet simple,” the company says. It has been “built for engineers by engineers [and] has been optimised to be used in the field where efficiency and reliability are paramount.”
European and US certification
Movus has achieved certifications with the US Federal Communications Commission and compliance with the relevant EU legislation, indicated by the CE mark, enabling FitMachine to be sold in the US and Europe, and has outsourced manufacture to Brisbane based industrial sensor manufacturer IntelliDesign.
The company’s latest product is FitMachine EX, described as an intrinsically safe solution to continuously monitor equipment in explosive and sensitive environments, such as oil and gas with the aim of reducing maintenance costs.
Following launch of FitMachine EX, Movus was awarded Startup of the Year 2019 at the Future of Mining conference.
The company has also secured a Federal Government Business Growth Grant from the Entrepreneurs Programme and recently announced a joint project with the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre designed to support Australian manufacturing SMEs become more competitive.
It says both initiatives will help it expand domestically and internationally.
