Ecoplant: Israeli IoT startup wins grant, VC funding, new partnership

• Israeli Internet of Things (IoT) startup Ecoplant has raised $8 million in grant and VC funding to expand its air compression operations in the US. 
• Ecoplant’s software monitors air compressors — used in various agricultural and manufacturing processes — through sensors, and automatically manages the system utilizing IoT-technology.
• “5% of the world’s energy is used by air compressors,” Aviran Yaacov, cofounder and CEO of Ecoplant told Business Insider. “So much energy is wasted every year from leakages, breaks, and other downtime which our IoT solution is able to help resolve.”
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Israeli IoT startup Ecoplant, which builds software that monitors and manages air compression systems used in many industries, has raised $8 million in grant and VC funding to expand its US operations. 

Air compressors, common in agricultural and manufacturing industries, use up massive amounts of energy, and Ecoplant claims its software can reduce wastage. The company has raised $8 million in the form of clean energy grants from the US Department of Energy, Israel’s Ministry of Energy (MoE), and the Israel Innovation Authority, plus additional funding from accelerator program Techstars and Ecolab. 

A 2015 report by the US Department of Energy estimated that compressed air systems account for 10% of all electricity and roughly 16% of all motor system energy use in US manufacturing industries — a staggering figure. 

“5% of the world’s energy is used by air compressors,” Aviran Yaacov, cofounder and CEO of Ecoplant, told Business Insider in an interview. “So much energy is wasted every year from leakages, breaks, and other downtime which our IoT solution is able to help resolve.”

Yaacov claims that the company’s software saves up to 30% more energy, and halves unplanned downtime. To that end, Ecoplant has signed a partnership with Atlas Machine, a Kentucky-based distributor of industrial air compressors, and agreed to bring Ecoplant’s tech to US factories. 

“Our partnership with Atlas allows us to significantly scale through the thousands of factories they service,” Yaacov added. “During COVID we managed to install an entire project remotely which was amazing.”

Ecoplant’s software monitors air compressors through a connection to controllers and pipeline sensors, and automatically manages the system with IoT-tech. Other clients include Nestle, Unilever, Danone, and Elbit.

Check out Ecoplant’s pitch deck below: