eSmart Systems, a Norwegian provider of AI-based analytics for infrastructure inspection and asset health monitoring, has successfully completed a capital raise of USD 34.4 million. Energy Impact Partners (EIP), the US utility-backed investment fund, and innogy Ventures have joined the investment round initially closed by Equinor Energy Ventures, Nysnø Climate Investments, and Kongsberg Digital in December 2018.

Currently, eSmart’s software oversees electricity operations for 48 customers in 7 countries, including Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. The company is also a Microsoft Partner and its CTO, Erik Aasberg, has been appointed as a Microsoft Regional Director.

A solid foundation for further growth

Strong partnerships are essential for eSmart’s further growth. For the last 6 years eSmart Systems has received the support of several global players as partners and shareholders, including Equinor Energy Ventures, Nysnø Climate Investments and Kongsberg Digital. With EIP and innogy Ventures entering as shareholders in a second closing, eSmart Systems has fulfilled its ambition to establish a solid foundation from which to expand in both American and European markets.
EIP is a leading US venture fund focusing on the energy sector backed by some of the world’s largest and most progressive utilities. innogy Ventures is the venture capital investment arm of innogy Innovation Hub, funded by innogy SE which is one of Europe’s leading energy companies.

eSmart Systems can help utilities ensure and maintain the reliability, safety, and resiliency of the electric grid,” said Energy Impact Partners’ Michael Donnelly. “EIP is thrilled to have eSmart as a portfolio company and co-invest alongside such strong partners. eSmart’s intelligent analytics solution for energy and utility companies has immediate use cases for our investor base. It helps utilities efficiently and effectively analyze existing and expanding data sources (including images and sensors), providing actionable insights for transmission and distribution systems.

About

ESMART SYSTEMS. eSmart Systems builds and delivers the next generation software solutions for inspections of powerlines, grid maintenance planning and energy flexibility optimization. We target utilities worldwide and offer reduced costs and prolonged asset life with the use of our AI-powered solutions. The company is based on more than 20 years of international experience in establishing and operating knowledge based, leading IT and energy related companies targeting global markets.

ENERGY IMPACT PARTNERS. Energy Impact Partners (EIP) is an investment firm focused on the conversion of the energy industry towards a decarbonized, decentralized, digitized and electrified future. EIP brings together leading innovators with some of the world’s most valuable, forward-looking energy and operating companies to create a cleaner, more secure and resilient future. Through close collaboration with its investor base, EIP connects the best companies, buying power and vision in the industry to bear on the emerging energy landscape. EIP’s utility partners include Southern Company, National Grid, Xcel Energy, Ameren, Evergy, Fortis Inc., AGL, Avista, MGE Energy Inc., TEPCO, PTT Public Company Limited, OGE Energy Corp., TransCanada, and Alliant Energy.

INNOGY VENTURES. innogy Ventures GmbH is the €130m venture capital investment arm of the innogy Innovation Hub, participating or leading series A and beyond venture capital deals focused on innovative and digital business models in North America, Europe and Israel. Portfolio companies are supported with comprehensive market knowledge, assistance in business development and links to the wider innogy SE’s network in order to support their competitiveness and accelerate their growth.
innogy Ventures and the innogy Innovation Hub are funded by innogy SE, a leading German energy company, with revenues of around 37 billion euros (2018), around 43,000 employees as well as activities in 16 European countries and in new markets such as Australia, Canada and the USA.

EQUINOR ENERGY VENTURES. Equinor’s 200 MUSD venture capital fund was launched in February 2016. With a team in both Europe and North America and a long term approach, the fund is dedicated to investing up to 20 MUSD in attractive and ambitious growth companies in renewable and low carbon energy technologies, supporting Equinor’s strategy of growth in new energy solutions.

NYSNØ CLIMATE INVESTMENTS. The Norwegian sovereign climate investment fund makes commercial investments in companies and funds that contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Nysnø invests alongside private investors looking for profitable, climate friendly investments. Nysnø is based in Stavanger, Norway and has been operational since mid-2018.

KONGSBERG DIGITAL. Kongsberg Digital is a provider of next-generation software and digital solutions to customers within maritime, oil and gas, and renewables and utilities. The company consists of more than 500 software experts with leading competence within the internet of things, smart data, artificial intelligence, maritime simulation, automation and autonomous operations. Kongsberg Digital is subsidiary of KONGSBERG (OSE-ticker: KOG), an international, knowledge-based group delivering high-technology systems and solutions to clients within the oil and gas industry, subsea, merchant marine, defence and aerospace. KONGSBERG has 11 000 employees worldwide, creating a total revenue of NOK 14.4 billion in 2018.

ADVISORS

To eSmart Systems:
• Financial Advisor: DNB Markets
• Legal: Advokatfirmaet CLP DA

eSmart Systems’ CTO, Erik Åsberg, has been appointed the reputable title as Microsoft Regional Director for a second consecutive two-year period.

Regional Directors are hand-picked by Microsoft based on a rigorous set of evaluations designed to help select the best representatives of developer, IT Pro, and strategic technology needs of the world’s most impactful businesses. In 2017, Erik was chosen as Microsoft Reginal Director – Norway for the first time.

Microsoft Regional Director Program 

Established in 1993, the program consists of 175 of the world’s top technology visionaries chosen specifically for their proven cross-platform expertise, community leadership, and commitment to business results. Regional Directors are typically keynoting at top industry events, leading community groups and local initiatives, running technology-focused companies, or consulting on and implementing the latest breakthrough within a multinational corporation.

Read more about the program on Microsoft Regional Directors. 

About Erik Åsberg 

Erik Åsberg serves as Chief Technology Officer of eSmart Systems AS. With over 20 years of experience from the energy & IT field, he is an expert in leveraging the use of new technology to strengthen businesses through complete eco-systems on Microsoft Azure platform.

For the second consecutive year, eSmart Systems was recognized as finalist in the category of AI and Machine Learning in the annual Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards.

Excellence in innovation based on Microsoft technology

The annual awards recognize Microsoft partners demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. Award winners and finalists from around the world will be recognized at Microsoft Inspire, July 14–18, 2019, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

We’re thrilled to celebrate the finalists and winners of the Microsoft 2019 Partner of the Year Awards,” said Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft. “These companies are industry leaders helping businesses around the world connect and achieve more. I’m truly amazed by each winner and finalist, and I am honored to highlight the incredible work they are doing.

Read more and see winners and finalists on Microsoft News Center.

eSmart Systems announced a partnership with Juniper Unmanned, Inc., a Colorado-based remote sensing and analytics integrator for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

The partnership aims to capitalize on the combination of Juniper Unmanned’s expertise for producing high-quality data combined with eSmart Systems’ AI platform Connected Drone®, powered by Microsoft® Azure to improve utility companies’ detailed inspections by providing actionable intelligence downstream. Juniper Unmanned provides enhanced LiDAR and photogrammetric services to a number of markets, including utilities, transportation, oil & gas, and AEC.

Also, Juniper has been providing UAS enablement services to customers. eSmart specializes in AI for utilities, including image recognition to catalog and review infrastructure components to make more informed decisions for transmission and distribution (T&D) assets and their related environments.  “We’ve had the opportunity to work with eSmart before and we felt it was a great strategic fit,” said Brian Soliday, Chief Revenue Officer of Juniper Unmanned.

We’ve found that even the most advanced AI routines require high quality data for detecting anomalies, like missing or damaged equipment, and to support critical observations needed for NESC (National Electric Safety Code) violations, which can be detected via the eSmart applications.

Juniper Unmanned has really been there when we’ve needed them to be and stepped up and far exceeded our expectations. They understand the customer requirements in the utility segment and are the UAS data expertsJuniper has a continuous commitment to adding to their acquisition, sensor fleet, and data processing capabilities.

These past few days eSmart Systems have had several high profiled visits. The Prime Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg, and Minister of Research and Higher Education, Iselin Nybø, visited the Simulation Center in Halden May 28^th. This was followed by a visit from Norway’s first Minister of Digitalisation, Nikolai Astrup, June 3^rd.

The main objective for their trip to Halden was to gain a better understanding of the many innovative projects concerning smart energy, digitalisation and AI.  

The Minster of Digitalisation did also attend the opening of Institute for Energy Technology’s new cybersecurity and digitalisation lab.  Read more about Institute for Energy Technology (IFE).  

Key to success 

The Ministers received a brief introduction to eSmart Systems, Smart Innovation Norway and Nordic Media Lab. They got to experience first-hand applied AI by testing the Connected Drone product demo, which also included how eSmart Systems train machine learning algorithms using simulation.

Innovation is the future  

It is clear that the innovative work and solutions developed in Halden are fully in line with the Governments aspirations.

During this year’s Conservative Party Conference speech, the Prime Minster gave a special mention to eSmart Systems and Smart Innovations Norway’s innovative efforts. Watch video here.  

Read more eSmart news here.

eSmart Systems recently launched a new app called Mobile Ground Station (MGS). The app allows utilities to use their own DJI drones, collect inspection data and have it analyzed in the Connected Drone software.

MGS has been tested for the past 9 months with various customers, and the launch is linked to the major upgrade on the Connected Drone software (version 2.1).

I am very enthusiastic about this – in the Connected Drone software the users may follow drone operations in real time.  If you have one or even several drones flying you can sit at your office and monitor the operation in real time

says Lie

Imagine that you have an outage scenario and need to coordinate the efforts out in the field with the operation center. You can start the desktop client and as soon as one of the drone operators starts a mission in the app you will see where the drone is. When they take pictures, you will instantly have those ready and analyzed in the desktop client. We believe that this will reduce the time it takes to identify outages significantly

Lie continues

Typical use cases

According to Lie, the typical user of MGS is related to how the utilities operate. Some utilities fly drones themselves; others use external drone operators. MGS support both these set ups. The two typical use cases for the app are planned powerline inspections and field workers searching and trying to identify the cause of an outage.

An added benefit of using Connected Drone is the product’s ability to strengthen the Utilities’ knowledge about the various components on their assets. eSmart Systems works with operators both in Europe and in the US, and the usage scenario is the same – you install the app on your device, and with a DJI drone you can use the app to effectively collect data. 

How to get started?

The app is a part of the Connected Drone software. Customers can download the app from Apple’s app store and notify eSmart Systems who will setup a user.

Thursday April 25, eSmart Systems signed a letter of intent with the United Nations Smart Sustainable City Network to establish Northern Europe’s first United Smart Sustainable City Lab (USSC Lab).

eSmart Systems was one of 11 players signing the agreement, and the main program objective is to promote sustainable development and projects in cities at a global level, supporting cities in transition and developing countries to develop smarter and more sustainable urban solutions. In Norway, the USSC lab will be in Ålesund, at the Offshore Simulator Centre at Campus Ålesund.

Envision a future of sustainable societies

eSmart Systems has also joined the United Smart Cities Program, which is a program based on the core values from the UN’s sustainability goals.

In addition to public actors and innovation environments, private sector partnerships are key elements of the United Smart Cities Program. According to UN, United Smart Cities has initiated and developed an extensive pool of companies (covering 12 sectors) to support participating cities in discussions of applicable and smart technology and to support in the development of projects.

In addition to eSmart Systems, these 10 players signed the letter of intent, April 25:

Sparebanken Møre, ÅKP, NTNU in Ålesund, Norwegian Maritime Competence Center, SINTEF, Offshore Simulator Center, Next Digital, TAFJORD, Smart Innovation Norway, Møre og Romsdal county municipality.

For the third year in a row Abelia and the Norwegian tech network ODA has listed Norway’s 50 most successful tech women on the International Women’s Day (IWD), March 8. This year, as in previous years, we can find an eSmarter on the list.  Our very own Chief Operating Officer, Tina Skagen.

I am proud to be named on of Norway’s top 50 tech women again this year. I want to share this with all my colleagues in eSmart Systems, both men and women. Diversity is a driver for innovation, and the diverse, dedicated and driven team at eSmart is what makes us a great company in every sense

said Skagen

Role models in the tech industry

Haugli and Næss believe that increased recruitment of both women and men to technology professions requires three things: Good role models, development opportunities and a good working environment. He also believes that good gender balance has an effect on the bottom line, in that it makes the company more attractive in the labor market and in that diversity internally increases the possibilities of adapting solutions to a multitude of customers externally.

The 75 employees in eSmart Systems represent 11 nationalities. 21 % are women. The company has a wide span in age, industry experience and educational background.

Research proves that diverse teams come up with better solutions. With the challenges our world faces today we need the best solutions. It is true for eSmart Systems as a company and the competitive edge of our solutions, and it is true for our society and planet

said Skagen

About Tina Skagen

Tina holds a M.Sc. in Strategy and Management from Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. In 2008, she completed the Norwegian Entrepreneurship Program in Boston as a part of her master’s degree. In 2015, she participated in the program Innovation Management in a Global Business Perspective at the Norwegian Business School. Over the past years, Tina has held positions as Business Controller and Project Manager at different Norwegian corporations.

In February, eSmart Systems was accepted for the INVIDIA Inception program. The program propels AI startups with powerful GPU tools, tech and deep learning expertise.

The Inception program it’s a virtual accelerator program that helps startups during critical stages of product development, prototyping and deployment. Every startup gets a custom set of ongoing benefits, from hardware grants and marketing support to training with deep learning experts.

Being part of the program gives eSmart Systems access to NVIDIA’s global ecosystem – a network of deep learning experts and thought leaders. The deep learning community is using GPU-accelerated platforms for training and inference, and Inception members can get early access to state-of-the-art technology and try out the latest software.