AI-based machine health solution provider Augury recently announced an investment by Qualcomm Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, a global leader in 5G technologies, to accelerate the transformation of the industrial sector.
The key to commercial success of any new technology is moving the conversation around it from its technological benefits, to the value and outcomes it provides. Augury co-founder and CEO Saar Yoskovitz tells IndustryWeek, with 5G, although there has been a lot of talk about the high speed, low latency benefits it provides, manufacturers have yet to see real world benefits.
“As with any other infrastructure technology, 5G is one link in the value chain and not a standalone solution,” he says. “If the market just views it as a better version of WiFi, it will fail to gain the support and traction needed to transform a whole industry. Infrastructure companies, wireless carriers and service providers should join forces and provide complete end-to-end solutions that solve real problems for industrial companies.”
Capitalizing on 5G is one of the primary goals with the Qualcomm Ventures investment. Together, the two companies are positioned to accelerate the Industry 4.0 movement well beyond today’s pace by laying a new foundation for digital machine health. Qualcomm Ventures $8 million investment in Augury builds on the momentum generated from Augury’s $25 million Series C earlier this year.
“As digital transformation in the industrial market continues to gain significant traction, it is clear today that 5G technologies will play an essential role in enabling the promise of the Industrial IoT at scale,” said Yoskovitz. “5G’s promise of lower power, increased bandwidth and low latency capabilities will enable us to re-imagine the way our products work and the value we can provide to our customers and partners. By working with Qualcomm to deploy and utilize 5G-enabled technologies, we will exponentially scale our machine health solutions to make the manufacturing industry more reliable, while helping our partners transform their operations.”
Moving beyond consumer focus of previous cellular network generations, 5G holds the potential of to make a significant difference within the industrial market. The power efficiency and reduced latency provided by 5G will see expedited time to value across manufacturing lines, and into new use cases that are being established within the industry today.
“Augury has emerged as a leader in IIoT, leveraging AI to enable the world’s leading manufacturers to improve their operations through better machine health monitoring,” said Carlos Kokron, Vice President, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Managing Director, Americas for Qualcomm Ventures, who will join Augury’s board of directors as an observer. “We are excited by their vision and traction and are looking forward to working with them to advance 5G and edge computing in industrial settings.”
