Infinite Uptime bags $35M to help factories optimize equipment usage | TechCrunch

Infinite Uptime, an Indian startup that offers predictive maintenance solutions for factories, has raised $35 million in a Series C funding round to expand its footprint in the U.S. and other markets.

The manufacturing industry has lagged many industries in its adoption of tech, and much of the world’s heavy industry still depends on machines, many of which are aging and consume lots of energy. That said, modern tech is slowly but surely making its way into factories, particularly for maintenance and repairs — the space Infinite Uptime is targeting.

The company says it provides predictive maintenance and repair recommendations using proprietary sensors, software analytics, and AI-based diagnostics. It also has a smart dashboard that provides live monitoring capabilities and the ability to forecast downtime, letting manufacturers plan for maintenance.

“We give manufacturers pinpointed recommendations and intervention points, exactly what needs to be done in the plant, what parameters need to be looked at, which asset needs to be corrected,” Infinite Uptime’s founder Raunak Bhinge told TechCrunch.

The startup says its piezoelectric sensors can offer diagnostics in high temperatures as well as complex acidic environments such as phosphoric acid, nitric acid and sulphuric acid plants. It has secured about five patents in this space, Bhinge said.

To be clear, this isn’t an entirely new opportunity in the market — large manufacturers like Rockwell, Siemens, and Honeywell have enabled factories with AI-based automation for some time. Similarly, some startups like Augury help factories detect problems with their machines using sensors and AI.

But Bhinge feels Infinite Uptime is “fairly unique in terms of the tech stack,” explaining that the startup’s approach is not top-down, like its larger competitors which use programmable logic controllers (PLC) or programmable limit switches (PLS). He argued that even the battery-based microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that some startups offer have limited use cases and effectively do not work for high-temperature applications.

Infinite Uptime targets manufacturers in the steel, cement, metals, mining, fertilizers, chemicals, and paper industries. It also partners with OEMs to plug its AI layer into their new products.

Cumulatively, Infinite Uptime says its solutions have helped customers see downtime savings of 74,274 hours as well as 5% to 10% improvement in productivity, energy efficiency, safety, and compliance.

The startup currently serves 800 plants in nearly 30 countries, and with the new funding, it aims to expand its presence in the U.S further. The Series C was led by Avataar Ventures, and saw participation from StepStone Group and LGVP, along with existing investors Tiger Global and GSR Ventures. The round brings the company’s total capital raised to about $65 million since its inception in 2015, per Crunchbase.

Bhinge said the startup’s revenue has increased by 2 times every year for the past three years, and it is operationally cash-flow positive. The company is looking to put the fresh cash towards product development, and intends to evaluate M&A opportunities to scale further.

Infinite Uptime, which has about 350 employees, also plans to invest more in R&D and data science to enhance its AI insights and “further close the gap between build capacity and actual production and also improve production efficiency,” Bhinge said.

“We’re investing in how we can help manufacturers […] use less energy per ton of production from their existing build capacity,” he said.