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Venture Capital News: Sight Machine Raises $13.5M

2016-03-22
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Sight Machine, leading the digital transformation of manufacturing, today announced it has raised $13.5 million in Series B venture capital.
The round is led by Chicago-based Jump Capital and includes GE Ventures, Two Roads Group and Pritzker Group Venture Capital.

'Sight Machine is developing the technology that will bring us closer to the realization of the brilliant factory,' said Karen Kerr, Senior Managing Director of Advanced Manufacturing at GE Ventures, a unit of General Electric Co. (GE). 'The ability to effectively manage and analyze manufacturing data will change so many industries, and we are proud to partner with Sight Machine to help grow and commercialize its business.'

'Sight Machine is in the sweet spot, with a very robust solution to the central problem that manufacturers are experiencing today: how to make sense of all their data,' said Lou Rassey, founder and CEO of Two Roads Group. 'They have hardened their technology over the last few years working with some very demanding customers. Now they are scaling up with proven technology and a proven business model.' Rassey is a former leader of McKinsey & Co.'s global manufacturing practice, and helped set the strategy for the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute, the U.S. national hub for digital industry innovation in Chicago.

'Manufacturing industries are at an inflection point,' said Saurabh Sharma, principal at Jump Capital. 'In the past 12 to 18 months, manufacturing CEOs and CIOs have realized they are missing opportunities to drive significant benefit from digitization of manufacturing and have launched strategic initiatives to catch up. Every innovative manufacturer should be looking to partner with a company like Sight Machine to remain competitive.'

Existing investors re-investing in this round include IA Ventures, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Mercury Fund, Huron River Ventures and Orfin Ventures.

Sight Machine is working with some of the world's largest manufacturers in automotive, life sciences and consumer goods to turn data from the factory floor into actionable insight. Enterprise customers include auto OEMs and Tier One automotive suppliers, one of the world's best-known consumer brands, and global leaders in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and industrial materials. Early results of Sight Machine's work include:

For a Detroit Three automaker, Sight Machine detected and eliminated five times the quality defects the client suspected it was suffering.
As part of a global automation rollout for an enterprise manufacturer, Sight Machine helped reduce asset downtime by more than 50 percent and helped improve asset performance by 25 percent over a one-month period.
Sight Machine is engaging with a global pharmaceutical company to help understand and prevent manufacturing quality problems.

'Manufacturing is an $11 trillion dollar sector that is quickly going digital,' said Jon Sobel, Sight Machine's CEO. 'Sight Machine is solving a big problem, with tremendous benefit for industry and real opportunity for the company that gets it right. This financing helps cement Sight Machine's role as an essential company in this emerging ecosystem.'

Sight Machine will use the proceeds of the venture round to expand its sales and marketing efforts and continue technology development.

About Sight Machine

Sight Machine is driving the digital transformation of manufacturing, offering the only end-to-end big data platform built specifically for manufacturing. Sight Machine's manufacturing analytics platform transforms data from process, parts, and people into actionable insights, helping manufacturers address critical challenges in quality and operations. Sight Machine provides real-time production, quality and supply chain monitoring; retrospective analysis of product variation and failures; predictive analytics to support process improvement; and benchmarking on the contractor, factory, line and tool levels. For more information, please visit www.sightmachine.com.
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