EIT Digital Accelerator announces that one of its supported scaleups, METRON, a leading provider of artificial intelligence algorithms to reduce energy consumption of industrial plans, has raised an A-round of €8 million to be invested into its international growth and R&D.
METRON, the France-based developer of an innovative energy intelligence platform for industry, has completed a new €8 million fundraising. The fundraising includes commitments from BNP Paribas, Financière Fonds Privés, which enables private investors to invest directly in high potential companies, and existing shareholder, Breed Reply, a leading active operational investor in early-stage Internet of Things businesses. The funds will enable METRON to accelerate its international growth, and the further development of its AI-based energy optimisation solutions.
Since its creation in 2013, METRON has raised nearly €12 million, including this round. Vincent Sciandra, CEO and Co-founder of METRON, says: "We have seen high levels of customer satisfaction, as customers experience lower than 12 months payback on their investment. I want to thank them for choosing METRON. This capital raise will enable us to change our commercial dimension, particularly in international markets where we already do 75% of our business. It will also allow us to develop our technology not only to transform energy into a profit centre in industry, but also to serve the new needs from energy sector players. We are delighted with our new shareholders, Financière Fonds Privés and BNP Paribas, as well as the continued support of Breed Reply. This is a real recognition of our ability to provide innovative and profitable solutions for the energy transition.”
METRON offers customers an energy intelligence platform which collects, aggregates and analyses in real time all types of data generated by industrial systems, while interfacing directly with external data, such as those from energy markets or weather forecasts. The artificial intelligence engine developed by METRON allows manufacturers to effectively reduce their energy consumption and improve their environmental footprint while entering the era of factory 4.0. This new fundraising will help to strengthen the financing of the company's R&D effort, which aims to become a key global player in industrial energy intelligence by 2022. METRON was supported by the EIT Digital Accelerator in initiating and organizing this fundraise.
“METRON has re-shaped the way energy data are used in industries by providing significant energy savings and optimization to its clients. We have been impressed by their smart solution to connect to the data from the production lines, allowing their Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms to run on to. We are extremely proud to have supported METRON in its fundraising. METRON is focusing on deep-tech and artificial intelligence, which are areas covered in depth by EIT Digital Accelerator“, says Daniel Michel, Head of Access to Finance at EIT Digital.
Founded in 2013, METRON will have in 2019 a team of around 100 experts (data scientists and energy engineers), helping manufacturers to maximize value from their energy data and deploy their energy efficiency projects within their production processes. METRON works in all sectors of industrial activities, including mining, steel, paper, glass, chemicals, automotive, food & beverage.
The scaleup, headquartered in Paris, is active in about ten countries and has six operational centres in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. It recently opened two new subsidiaries in Singapore and Sao Paulo to support its key accounts, in particular Danone having industrial sites currently being deployed throughout the world. METRON wants to strengthen its international teams in 2019 and open new offices throughout the world.
The METRON-EVA® Factory (Energy Virtual Assistant) platform provides real-time mapping of all energy flows and visual management of energy performance indicators. Through machine learning algorithms and dedicated knowledge bases, it allows companies to identify in industrial processes, non-intuitive optimization levers and to support their implementation to generate the expected gains. By interfacing directly with energy markets or decentralized energy assets such as renewable energies, factory operations can be optimized in real time according to production and market context.
About METRON
Founded in 2013, METRON has developed an energy intelligence platform for industrial factories. By harnessing multiple sources of data generated by industrial systems, METRON Energy Virtual Assistant leverages latest machine learning capabilities and dedicated knowledge bases to proactively identify energy savings opportunities, connect to decentralised energy resources and turn energy into a profit centre. More than 70 experts, data scientists and energy engineers, work in Europe, Latin America, the Middle-East and Asia helping industrial clients in all sectors to maximize value from their energy data and support them with the implementation of energy efficiency optimisations.
About EIT Digital Accelerator - Access to Finance
EIT Digital Accelerator provides tailor-made growth support for European tech scaleups by helping secure international customers and raise capital. The Accelerator team comprises more than 30 experienced business developers and finance experts operating from 15 cities across Europe, along with a hub in Silicon Valley. Since 2012, they have supported 300 startups who raised over €400 million in investment, with more than €100 million directly facilitated by the Accelerator. The programme was ranked 8th among the Top 20 Active Accelerators in the Global Accelerator Report 2016 by Gust.
