IIoT: PwC Germany invests in a specialist analysis company for manual work processes and human movements
09 February, 2023
PwC Holdings Germany GmbH is the lead growth investor in MotionMiners GmbH / MotionMiners analyses human movements and work processes / The company’s insights offer great potential for process optimisation and increased efficiency / PwC Germany is strengthening its role as a growth investor and joint innovator for industrial digital transformation
Frankfurt am Main, 9 February 2023
Auditing and consulting firm PwC Germany is investing in Dortmund-based tech startup MotionMiners GmbH. PwC is the lead investor in MotionMiners, taking a minority stake in the company’s series A round through PwC Germany’s own investment company, PwC Holdings Germany GmbH. The funding provided by all the investors totals more than €5 million. MotionMiners is a spinoff of the Fraunhofer Institute, and has developed Motion-Mining® technology to analyse how people move in work processes. This is achieved using mobile sensors, Bluetooth transmitters and machine learning algorithms. The data delivered by these industrial internet of things (IIoT) systems can be used to help production and logistics planners speed up processes and improve ergonomics in industrial manufacturing, and the analyses provided by MotionMiners can reveal process optimisation potential which had previously been almost unknown.
Human movement data conceals huge potential efficiencies
“We were very impressed with the technological approach used by MotionMiners. Today’s companies frequently analyse machine data, but they hardly ever look at data on human movements and manual processes – and especially not using technology. We are delighted to be supporting this innovative company in its very promising development.”
“We are very pleased to have a partner company by our side, in the shape of PwC Germany, that has a clear focus on industrial IoT investments and provides access to a wide range of expertise around and beyond industrial digital transformation. This will help us to achieve our ambitious goals.”
PwC Germany: promoting digital transformation of European industry
PwC Germany’s investment in MotionMiners is the firm’s fourth investment in an IIoT startup in the last twelve months. This highlights PwC’s role as a growth investor and a joint innovator for industrial digital transformation. Alongside growth investments, PwC Germany is developing a flourishing IIoT ecosystem composed of innovative tech companies, industry experts, manufacturers and industrial corporations.
“We believe that barriers to dialogue between startups, established industrial companies and experts must be overcome, and that constructive interaction between them needs to be promoted. Shaping the digital future of industry and securing innovation is a challenge that we need to address together.”
The companies already in PwC Holdings Germany’s portfolio specialise in AI, machine connectivity and asset connectivity. PwC’s investment in MotionMiners adds an innovative specialist in data on manual processes and human movements to the mix. Combined with existing data from enterprise resource planning (ERP) and inventory management systems, machines, plant and other assets, this offers huge potential for increasing efficiency.
About PwC
At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We’re a network of firms in 152 countries with over 327,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com.
In this document, “PwC” refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, which is a member firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PwCIL). Each member firm of PwCIL is a separate and independent legal entity. For more information, please visit www.pwc.com/structure.
About MotionMiners GmbH
MotionMiners GmbH was founded by Sascha Kaczmarek, Dr Sascha Feldhorst and Dr René Grzeszick in October 2017. In its first two years, the young company had close ties with the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (Fraunhofer IML) at TU Dortmund University. The company gained independence in the summer of 2019, and now has around 50 employees.
Motion-Mining® technology offers a new, digital way of carrying out process analysis on manual tasks, using sensors, Bluetooth beacons and machine learning algorithms to analyse the ergonomics and efficiency of work processes. This enables a realistic picture of tasks performed by employees. Data collection is fully automated and anonymised.
MotionMiners’ vision is to provide the world’s most flexible and comprehensive analytical toolkit for manual tasks – a toolkit to make everyday work easier for analysts and continuously improve ergonomics for workers.
More information: www.motionminers.com
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