Pitango Venture Capital has invested in US manufacturing app developer Tulip as part of a $13 million Series A financing round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and including many returning angel investors. Tulip will use the capital to grow its world-class product, design, and research teams, while expanding its customer support capabilities in response to significant customer growth.
Pitango managing general partner Aaron Mankovski said, "The IT revolution in smart industry is happening in fron of our eyes and Tulip is a leading player helping many companies move forward to the next generation of manufacturing processes that increase efficiency and productivity. The advanced technology that Tulip brings to the market allows it to be a very major player in the field and we are proud to support it."
While automation and robotics in factory floors continue to grow, the manufacturing workforce is increasingly left behind, using paper-based processes and legacy siloed technology. Manufacturers therefore seek intuitive, self-service digital tools that will drive the next wave of workforce productivity.
Tulip, a spinout from MIT, developed the Manufacturing App Platform to address these needs. The platform brings the power of industrial IoT and advanced analytics to the front-line engineer and operator on the shop floor through self-service apps that allow them to:
Global manufacturers rely on Tulip's platform to create IoT-enabled apps for a variety of use cases including interactive work instructions, automatic data collection, quality control, audits, machine monitoring, and training. An analysis by Deloitte examining the impact of Tulip at Jabil, a leading global contract manufacturer, found that production yield increased by more than 10 percent, and manual assembly quality issues were reduced by 60 percent in the initial four weeks of operation. Other customers have seen over 10 percent increases in yield, and in some cases up to 90 percent reduction in new operators' training times.
"Our customers realize that modern, people-centric digital tools are key to powering digital transformation in manufacturing and increasing workforce productivity," said Natan Linder, Tulip's CEO and co-founder. "We couldn't have asked for better partners to help accelerate our lead in this exciting marketplace. NEA and Pitango share our vision and drive to revolutionize the manufacturing software market and have unparalleled experience nurturing enterprise software market leaders. We're excited to keep building, innovating and giving customers the tools they need to transform their manufacturing operations."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 6, 2017
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017