FourJaw, the industrial IoT startup assisting manufacturers to attain peak productivity is today announcing it has received £1M in early-stage funding. This investment will support efforts to accelerate its growth and support high-value-adding manufacturers across the country.
This investment was supported by many within the UK investor community, notably North Invest and SFC Capital. Innovate UK, the government’s innovation arm providing funding and support for organisations commercialising new products and services also featured.
“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,” remarked Stephen Page, SFC Capital’s CEO.
IoT & analytics for manufacturers
FourJaw has developed a machine agnostic data analytics platform that’s accessible, affordable, and makes use of Industry 4.0 tech to deliver productivity improvements with tangible benefits. The company’s industrial IoT platform is designed to work on every machine, from legacy manually operated lathes to state-of-the-art machining centres to improve communication from the shop floor to the top floor.
“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,” added Bart Simpson, FourJaw’s Chairman and former Senior Operations Director at Autodesk.
Its utility has thus consequently led to the product being dubbed ‘the Fitbit for manufacturers’. The benefits offered include improved job costing & scheduling, reduced unplanned machine downtime and rapid diagnosis of quality issues.
FourJaw’s tool is quick and easy to install, providing manufacturers with accurate and up-to-date information which enables the production teams to collaborate more efficiently. The result is accurately timed job durations, maximised uptime, unblocking of bottlenecks, and an increase in productivity.
Co-founded by a Yorkshire 42 under 42
The Sheffield-based company was founded in 2020 by Chris Iveson and Robin Hartley MEng who was named one of the 42 young entrepreneurs under the age of 42 to watch in Yorkshire in 2021. The duo previously worked as research engineers at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), a world-renown R&D facility that brags Airbus, Boeing, McLaren, BAE Systems, and Rolls-Royce among its partners.
FourJaw’s platform is already being deployed across the UK to engineering supply chains across sectors such as energy, aerospace, defence, motorsport, MedTech, automotive and consumer goods.
“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,” commented FourJaw’s co-Founder & CEO, Chris Iveson, adding, “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 University of Sheffield spinoff previously received an undisclosed six-figure investment at a £2M valuation.
