Fourteen-year-old Ndustrial is expected to add to ABB’s AI-powered energy management capability after it bought a minority stake in the US software company via its ABB Ventures arm.
The European manufacturing and digital technology major last month acquired a share of Dublin, Ireland, based GridBeyond.
“Ndustrial helps companies measure and reduce their energy intensity – the energy required for a pre-defined unit of output or activity,” ABB said.
“By integrating multiple and often disparate data sources such as weather, market rates, equipment performance, industrial process outputs and more, companies can analyse, optimise and predict their energy usage and costs per unit of production.
“This enables real-time decisions, as well as actionable insights and automated control specific to the industry, facility or production line being optimised.”
ABB electrification service president Stuart Thompson said Ndustrial specifically enabled users to leverage “AI-powered predictions to make decisions in real-time so they can optimise production, save energy and reduce costs and emissions”.
Ndustrial co-founder and chief technology officer John Crawford said: “In a world preoccupied with AI that often delivers nebulous benefits, Ndustrial stands out for our decade of experience quantifying impressive payoffs from machine learning optimsations. Our team of industrial engineers and software developers have created a new kind of energy management system for industrial operations, and with ABB’s expertise and global reach, we’ll be able to make a real impact in accelerating the global energy transition.”
North Carolina-headquartered Ndustrial has about 40 employees.
ABB established its venture capital unit in 2009. It is said to have invested more than US$400 million in industrial IoT, AI/machine learning, robotics, energy transition, cybersecurity, electric mobility, smart buildings and distributed energy start-ups.
