Automation startup uses predictive AI to rethink manufacturing data

Automation startup TwinThread Inc. has announced that they will be relocating their headquarters from Charlottesville, VA to Bozeman in the coming months.

TwinThread, which has been functioning in stealth mode until the launch of its website on May 1st, has developed a platform to track industrial asset data. The company is among the latest additions to Next Frontier Capital’s investment portfolio.

Put simply, TwinThread technology enables manufacturers to gain insight into the performance of their machines, and recommend adjustments to those machines, without human intervention. Their software uses sensor data to continually compare assets and monitor performance, utilization, and replacement cycles. In the event of component failure, the system can identify the root of the problem. 

Ultimately, the automation is intended to continually improve the output of a given fleet and minimize production costs. In the heavy equipment industry, percentage points in machine performance efficiency often translate to millions of dollars gained over months of operation. 

The software doesn’t only deliver data in real-time, but also utilizes AI to predict behavior and anticipate mechanical issues before they arise. Customers can upload past performance information into the platform to glean analytical insights from decades of data. With a proactive service model, companies can cut down on lost production and save manpower hours spent retroactively analyzing and fixing machinery problems. 

Before founding TwinThread, CEO Erik Udstuen had three decades of experience in the tech industry. After studying chemical engineering and computer science, he began engineering work in pulp and paper plants to automate production in the early ‘90s. His work quickly expanded across sectors in food and beverage, automotive, and energy companies. 

Udstuen started his first company, Mountain Systems, in 1994, which developed software to help manufacturers track the quality of their production processes. Mountain Systems was bought by General Electric in 2003, where the product continues to be sold today. Several of Udstuen’s coworkers from his early endeavors are involved in TwinThread as well.

In 2007, Udstuen joined GE to run their industrial software business, which had its fingers in 30-40% of global manufacturing facilities. There he used the data that were being collected to predict failures and began thinking about how he could use those data to increase efficiency and save energy.

“I like to think that the first wave back in the mid-‘90s was just about collecting data. This second wave, let’s say 2005-2007, was about applying analytics and analyzing that data,” said Udstuen. “This next decade is about applying those analytics automatically at much lower cost and much higher scale. And that’s really what we created at TwinThread.”

Richard Harjes, Co-Founder and General Partner of Next Frontier Capital, has a history in AI-based portfolio management and sits on the TwinThread Board of Directors. Next Frontier Capital led TwinThread’s Series Seed financing in August 2018, raising $3.8 million. At the time, Udstuen had been working on TwinThread for about two years, and was just beginning to roll out pilot projects for interested customers.

By Fall 2019, TwinThread had gone from zero recurring revenue to $2.1 million. They now have 23 employees, including a sales office and team of customer success engineers. Next Frontier led an oversubscribed $5.3 million Series A financing in February 2020.

How TwinThread creates virtual mission control rooms

What discerns TwinThread from competitors is the ability for their customers to quickly and cost effectively scale using TwinThread’s platform—all using technology unprecedented in the industry.

“From here in Montana, TwinThread can reach out and pull in these behemoth companies, solving their industrial problems by being smart about how they deploy their models and build their AI based software,” said Harjes “There’s nothing better than being able to solve large-scale problems with simplified, customer facing solutions, no matter how complex and geeky they are to build. What would take a consulting firm, many people, and many millions of dollars to do, TwinThread can do far, far cheaper, and at a much larger scale. Because of that efficiency, its reach will be enormous. And that’s what gets us really excited.”

TwinThread has already garnered an impressive customer base that includes far-reaching household brand names such as Colgate and Procter & Gamble.

“These are very, very large companies in the scheme of things, but even they can’t afford to spend hundreds of millions of dollars putting together systems to collect all this data from their facilities and use it to improve. They really needed something that was much more cost effective and more scalable,” said Udstuen.

TwinThread begins the process of deploying the software to a customer by understanding the company’s fleet and how they are interested in increasing efficiency. This information determines where to focus the AI. The model is then automatically created, optimized, and tested with the customer through a pilot. Practically immediately, the software can be rolled out across hundreds or thousands of industrial assets. 

A key feature is that a given customer’s institutional knowledge and experience isn’t limited as it would be if the analytics and insights were routed through TwinThread as third party. The subject-matter experts of a company using TwinThread’s platform don’t need technical savvy to use the interface, nor do they need to change the personnel or culture of their workplace.

“From their client’s perspective, it doesn’t take more consultants, it doesn’t take more humans. It doesn’t take hiring a workforce, it doesn’t take hiring engineers, nothing. All it takes is that initial sculpting and then turning it on and it will adjust itself to your conditions from that point forward,” said Harjes.

Udstuen is looking forward to pursuing partnerships within Montana while playing on a global stage. Last fall, TwinThread partnered with AVEVA, a company that could be described as the GE of Europe. Big companies such as AVEVA are hungry for the innovation that nimble startups such as TwinThread can offer. TwinThread has also partnered with Microsoft to integrate their system with the Office 365 suite. 

Udstuen lived in Big Sky in the 2000s and is looking forward to the opportunity to return and build the center of the company out of Bozeman.

“Montana has become such an attractor for technology. People who want a better life, but they still want to be involved in the technology industry… We’ve gotten to a place where there’s a sort of critical mass of engineers and software people here,” said Harjes. “Montana is incredible in terms of the access to great talent and a great place to build your firm from a cost perspective.”

Udstuen mentioned a phenomenon that occurred after the turn of the millenium, when power companies began to create NASA-style mission control centers where relatively few people could monitor dozens of power generation units from a central location.

“What we’re enabling is, you can have that capability, but you don’t have to be physically in this mission control room,” said Udstuen. “Boom, you can be in Bozeman, Montana. And if you have the right connectivity, there’s no reason why you can’t perform that same function of monitoring plants and facilities all across the world.”

About the Publisher: Launched in 2014, the Montana High Tech Business Alliance is an association of more than 230 high tech and manufacturing companies and affiliates creating high-paying jobs in Montana. For more information visit MTHighTech.org.