At Early Metrics, we not only rate startups but also support them in creating successful relationships with corporates. We believe that sharing knowledge and insights can lead to a stronger innovation ecosystem involving both newcomers and industry giants.

That is why we started the EM Pitching nights, a series of events where a selection of highly rated startups have the chance to present their company to a qualified audience of industry specialists and blue-chip corporates. On November 20th, we held the 10th edition of this series which was focused on the exciting topic of Industry 4.0.  

As our CEO Antoine Baschiera explained, nowadays “consumer needs are changing faster than development cycles” so it’s vital to innovate quickly in industrial settings in order to fulfil the ever-changing demand. The current industrial revolution is built on three key pillars: analytics, robotics & automation and tracking & tagging. Data analytics has a multitude of applications like linking production to sales to optimise stock management or monitoring the performance of a plant. This subsector is particularly friendly for startups as it implies industry agnostic solutions and little dependence on hardware. Robotics and automation, on the other hand, are quite tricky areas for startups to break into due to regulation and capital-intensive development. However, they hold great potential especially in the case of worker empowerment and quality control. Lastly, the subsector of Tagging and Tracking seems very promising for startups as it already has high traction potential and can rely on the development of both hardware and software.

To illustrate some of the innovations arising in this space, we invited three brilliant startups to pitch. Amandine Joyeux, Business Engineer at OliKrom, talked about how “intelligent” paints can be used to detect changes in temperature or gas leaks in an industrial setting, eventually creating safer environments for industrial workers. Then, André JOLY, General Manager at SIMSOFT INDUSTRY, presented a voice assistant that can allow technicians to log their observations and access information through voice command. This allows them to be more efficient as they do not need to use a computer to log their work, it frees their hands and is a less invasive solution than AR. Lastly, Matthias Sicard, Sales Director for West and South Europe at Disruptive Technologies AS,  explained how their wireless mini-sensors can turn existing machinery into smart devices and collect data into the cloud.

Industry 4.0 is definitely a fascinating topic and we look forward to following its development as well as that of the startups that are catalysing this industrial revolution.