A startup billed as the ‘Fitbit for manufacturing machinery’ has secured £1 million in early-stage funding.
Sheffield-based FourJaw claims its manufacturing data analytics platform is unlocking five-fold increases in shopfloor productivity.
It has secured a second round of angel investment – supported by North Invest and SFC Capital – and Innovate UK funding worth £1m to accelerate its growth and support high-value-added manufacturers across the country.
“We are delighted investors share our passion for bringing affordable, quick-to-install data analytics to the UK’s precision engineering sector, which is vital to building a more competitive UK economy,” said co-founder and CEO Chris Iveson.
“This new round of funding empowers us to strengthen our team, accelerate growth, and deliver our exciting product roadmap as we forge ahead on our journey to change the world of manufacturing productivity.”
The company’s digital manufacturing platform, likened to a fitness watch for manufacturing machinery, is designed to work on every machine, from legacy manual lathes through to state-of-the-art machining centres.
The tool provides manufacturers with accurate and up-to-date information that enables the entire production team to work together to accurately time job durations, maximise uptime, unblock bottlenecks and increase productivity.
Stephen Page, CEO, SFC Capital, said: “We knew FourJaw had created a game-changing technology that would break through the sector’s scepticism surrounding Industry 4.0.
“Their data-driven technology is right for its time, helping drive a manufacturing renaissance for post-Brexit, post-COVID Britain where productivity and competitiveness are essential to the economy.”
FourJaw’s chairman and former senior operations director at Autodesk, Bart Simpson, said: “It’s great to see investors providing sustained finance for a technology that is changing the face of precision engineering in the UK.
“FourJaw has created a beautifully simple tool that is affordable, adaptable, and accessible to the vast majority of machining shop floors in the UK.
“It elegantly sidesteps the costly and invasive big-ticket alternatives, to deliver the right information at the right time, securely from the cloud.
“A tablet gives staff operatives and managers easy-to-digest data that is driving big improvements in productivity, thus securing UK jobs and international markets against fierce global competition.”
Jordan Dargue, Board Director of NorthInvest and Head of Access to Finance at the Innovation SuperNetwork said: “We were delighted to once again team up with co-founders Chris and Robin and assist them in completing another round of angel investment, as well as securing a grant from Innovate UK via the Regional Angel Investment Accelerator Programme.
“This grant has been pivotal in enabling FourJaw to leverage further angel investment from NorthInvest and the newly formed South Yorkshire Angel Hub, demonstrating the influence the programme has in supercharging funding rounds for Northern entrepreneurs.”
FourJaw’s digital manufacturing platform is now being deployed across the UK to precision engineering supply chains serving high-value manufacturing sectors including aerospace, energy (oil, gas, civil nuclear, and renewables), medical, defence, automotive, motorsport, machine knives, and consumer goods.