In his speech at InnovEIT in Budapest, Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, exemplified the need to support Europe’s innovators, with the case of KONUX, a startup supported by EIT Digital, that recently announced $7.5 million in Series A financing.
The CEO of KONUX, Andreas Kunze, was clear about the difference of the investor climate in the US and Europe in an interview and the Commissioner stressed the need for changing this risk-aversion in Europe, but also to further educate young people about entrepreneurship and support more open innovation so that more innovators from Europe, such as the KONUX team, can succeed in the future.
Using out-dated sensor technologies, industry cannot prevent or understand machine and infrastructure breakdowns, resulting in billions of USD losses each year. KONUX builds smart sensor systems that can provide insights into these breakdowns and generate robust, real-time data. By combining this measured data with the right analytics, KONUX enables customers to understand their machine problems and make maintenance predictable, helping to reduce expenses by 25% or more. This can be applied in railway, pumps, pipelines, robotics, industrial automation etc.
