METRON, the France-based developer of an energy intelligence platform for industry, has completed a new EUR8 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 EUR12 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 per cent 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.
Yann Lagalaye, Head of Energy Transition Capital at BNP Paribas, says: “BNP Paribas is committed to being a player in energy transition, and is investing EUR100 million in startups specialising in this field by 2022. Energy efficiency in industry is essential to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreements. METRON helps manufacturers to improve the energy efficiency of their plants with an innovative and incentive-based approach, perfectly meets this ambition. This is why we wanted to be involved with it at this pivotal moment in its technological, international and commercial development”.
Founded in 2013, by 2019 METRON will have 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 startup, 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, which has been supported in 2018 by the European accelerator EIT Digital, wants to strengthen its international teams in 2019 and open new offices abroad.
Emanuele Angelidis, CEO, Breed Reply says: “METRON has demonstrated the robustness of its technology which has been adopted by a growing number of manufacturing companies around the world. We are excited to continue our support of METRON and the team led by CEO Vincent Sciandra”.
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.
“The Financière Fonds Privés investment committee and our investors have been impressed by METRON’s management team and by the unique positioning it has built at the convergence of the digital revolution and the energy transition. The combination of Big Data, artificial intelligence and human expertise is a key success factor to accelerate METRON development”, says Baptiste Proveau, Managing Partner at Financière Fonds Privés.
