Australian heavy-equipment inspection and monitoring technology company Pitcrew AI has received important series A funding and backing from RCF Jolimont as it builds sales momentum in offshore and non-mining markets.
RCF Jolimont vice president Australasia Andrew Jessett has joined Newcastle-based Pitcrew AI’s board as a director.
The three-year-old Pitcrew AI uses thermal imaging technology and AI-enhanced computer vision and analytics to track heavy-vehicle tyre damage and machinery problems. The technology, seen to have applications in a wide range of other industries, improves safety and operational continuity.
The company says its automated inspection and condition monitoring solutions have been “widely embraced across diverse heavy vehicle fleets” and could become more important as, initially, mining shifts towards autonomous and remote vehicle operation that eliminates traditional driver-based issue detection.
An estimated 3% of the world’s 5000 surface mines have autonomous haul trucks and maybe 15% have automated drill rigs. Broadly, uptake is seen to be accelerating and automation of other mobile equipment is advancing.
“At the moment, we’re aiming to nail this really high-value, niche market,” Pitcrew AI CEO and founder Tim Snell said previously.
“Once we’re happy with that, we can start using the same deployed hardware to do a whole bunch of other mechanical inspections.”
Snell said this week: “When we created our solution we solved many tyre management issues encountered by mine sites. We have received fantastic support from all our customers and our partners in Australia and North America over the past few years.
“This funding allows us to accelerate our mission to enable safer and more sustainable transport and better support our customers and partners during our expansion.”
RCF Jolimont’s Jessett said Pitcrew AI was “poised for rapid growth”. The company had deep technical expertise in AI and mine operations.
Australian early-stage fund, Startmate, is said to have participated in Pitcrew AI’s latest funding round after investing in the company a year ago.
