UK’s IoT startup Thingtrax raises €4.9M to help manufacturers improve operational productivity

UK-based Thingtrax, an IoT SaaS-based manufacturing performance platform that enables manufacturers to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs, announced on Thursday that it has secured £4.3M (approximately €4.95M) in a pre-Series A round of funding. 

The investment was co-led by Concentric, Superseed and Puma Private Equity. 

The round also saw participation from Haatch, Portfolio Ventures, Vinci Venture Capital, and several well-known angel investors, including super angel Charlie Songhurst. 

Fred Soneya, co-founder & Partner at Haatch, says, “We are thrilled to be backing Thingtrax at this exciting time alongside SuperSeed and other investors. We were impressed by not only the team but also the performance platform.”

“Nobody else has built the breadth of shop floor digitisation, vertically integrated with C-suite tools and a daily management system that can be implemented as quickly or as affordably.”

“The team has proven their ability to scale the business, winning contracts across the US, EU, India, China and Africa. We look forward to supporting Thingtrax as they scale and grow,” adds Soneya.

“Manufacturing performance”

Thingtrax is an IoT SaaS solution provider that helps industrial companies improve productivity and cut expenses. It was co-founded by Aman Gupta and Imran Shafqat in 2015 at a Cisco and University College London accelerator. The company is currently led by CEO Paul Reader.

Thingtrax integrates with more than 300 devices and protocols, collecting and analysing manufacturing operations data in real time to increase manufacturing operations’ productivity.

The company uses a single integrated platform that combines cloud computing, robots, the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and computer vision. Thingtrax claims it can monitor 100 per cent of production activities on the manufacturing floor inside a single system, enhancing company performance.

Reader says, “Out of 10m factories worldwide, 94 per cent are looking for digital solutions that can connect multiple factories globally, standardise processes and improve efficiency.”

“Thingtrax goes beyond data collection and provides leaders with in-depth analysis and actionable insights for improved efficiency and behaviour change across the workforce,” adds Reader.

Thingtrax’s integrated product suite includes:  

• A dashboard that provides real-time statistics on all areas of production and compares them to key performance metrics and appropriate benchmarks.
• A collaboration suite that provides a structure for Daily Management meetings to help with continuous development and problem resolution.
• A data capture suite that uses software and hardware to display real-time productivity metrics, such as OEE for individual machines and true line view. Manual processes can be captured using the company’s camera-based Vision AI system.

Capital utilisation

Thingtrax says it will use the funds to accelerate expansion by developing strategic partnerships, scaling the team, and broadening its customer base across Europe and the US.

Reader says, “With limited resources, we have built a fantastic product and attracted prominent customers. This funding will enable us to bolster the quality of our service, prioritise strategic partnerships and focus on expanding our customer base with an emphasis on Europe and the US.”

Thingtrax’s growth and development

In 2020, Thingtrax secured $1M in a seed round led by SuperSeed alongside industrial specialist Sumaria. Since then, the company claims to have had an “impressive” growth, increasing by 550 per cent in 2021 and 23 per cent in 2022. 

Additionally, the company has preferred partner status with Microsoft and is a recognised AI partner for Intel in the domain of Edge Solutions. 

Thingtrax assists companies like Berry, Carlco, RGE Group, and Southern Champion that operate in the plastics, food & beverage, consumer packaged goods, automotive, and other industries, and are spread out across the UK, Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America.

The UK-based company also reports that it had a “remarkable” growth surge in recent years, both in terms of operations and staff size. Currently, it employs 60 people from Pakistan, the US, and the UK. 

Thingtrax has already made a number of critical new appointments as part of the growth phase execution, including a VP of Sales, VP of Marketing, and VP of People, to make sure it has the skills to advance its goal of being the top manufacturing performance platform.