123Fab #9

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

Cybersecurity in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, cyber threats were already increasing exponentially — expected to reach 4 million threat types by 2025, according to ITU News. But the global pandemic has catalyzed the creation of an ideal environment for cybercriminals, taking advantage of the less secure wireless networks in use and the chaos and anxiety associated with the pandemic.

Cyber attacks have reached unprecedented levels with almost 1M phishing and website scams registered by Google during the first three months of 2020 alone. And big tech companies, hospitals, international and national organizations, including the World Health Organization, the United Nations and NASA, were massively targeted by ransomware attacks during the pandemic, with a spike of 300% additional phishing and malware attacks across their network infrastructures.

Breach attempts are increasingly sophisticated and complex, which raises many questions about security and privacy issues in the highly connected environment we live in. Cybersecurity investments are rising each year, reaching $10bn invested in privacy and security companies in 2019, compared to $1.7bn in 2010, according to a recent Crunchbase query.

In order to better resist cybercriminal attacks, startups are developing specific technologies: biometrics with fingerprint and facial recognition to ensure strong authentication, encryption 2.0 to secure data and storage, automated testing to ensure the security of software and operating systems and artificial intelligence to detect and prevent the risk of cyber attacks. With the rise of these new protection and security technologies, related business models are emerging, such as Encryption-as-a-service, Authentication-as-a-service, Assessment-as-a-service and even white hackers to test the vulnerability of your system.

2 Key Figures

1,1653 cybersecurity startups

received seed funding in the last twelve months

Market size worth $1.5tn in 2018

In 2018, the cybercrime economy was estimated to be worth  $1.5 trillion, according to a study commissioned by Bromium.

3 startups to draw inspiration from

This week, we identified three startups that we can draw inspiration from:  Senseon, Zero Networks and Semperis.

Senseon

Based in London, Senseon is a self-driving cyber defense platform using artificial intelligence in order to detect, investigate and respond to cyber threats. The startup has raised €5.8 million in February 2019.

Zero Networks

Zero Networks is an Israeli-based startup focusing on automating the development and enforcement of network access rules throughout an entire network.

Semperis

Semperis is a US-based startup developing enterprise identity protection and cyber resilience that enables companies to quickly recover from accidental and malicious damages on cloud or hybrid environments.

123Fab #7

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

While a large portion of the working population is being asked to work from home when they can, the need for remote simulation and monitoring has increased dramatically. This has led us to address the increasingly relevant topic of ‘Digital Twins’, or how the combination of connected sensors, digital modeling and artificial intelligence work together to serve Industry 4.0. It is especially useful for remote operations: NASA was the first to really leverage twin technology to ensure the maintenance of its assets, thousands of kilometers away.

Digital Twins (DT) are a virtual representation of physical assets or networks. It is composed of three main elements:

• A physical part: the product, component, process or network to be twinned
• Its virtual replica: including the physical and chemical specificities of each material or component
• Data flow: coming from the connected physical product and enriching the virtual replica in real time, providing risk and performance information.

Digital Twins are therefore very different from a digital model since you start from the physical product to build its twin, and not the other way around. The idea of dynamics, of movement, is also crucial to understand the depth of DT and the variety of use cases.

In its most static form, DT transcribes real-time data from a physical asset, which facilitates testing and maintenance. Continuous data collection provides a thorough history of the physical asset’s performance and problems, and this data can feed machine learning algorithms to draw the line further into the future and improve their predictive capability. The so-called Predictive Twin is an extension of the original DT as it allows the execution of what-if scenarios. This allows you to save money by investing better (you can test a new product or a new part of your asset and see if it performs according to plan) and to support your operating decisions (for example, when operating a power grid, you can run a scenario on how the grid will behave if you shut down a generator, increase your renewable energy consumption, or experience a large increase in demand).

The main sectors interested in Digital Twins are Manufacturing, complex Engineering (aerospace, automotive, railway…), Health, Energy, but also network operations (grid operators, logistics and supply chain). Chevron, for example, expressed the ambition to save millions a year thanks to digital twins.

However, the deployment of Digital Twins is slowed down by a series of technical and organisational complexities:

• From a technical point of view, the very creation of the virtual replica is highly sensitive and has a significant impact on product performance because you need to create a data transfer system which wasn’t necessary before. Building a realistic  replica also requires, on the one hand, powerful modeling technologies and, on the other hand, a fairly cross-disciplinary approach to feed physics and chemistry (for components’ specs and behavior), product engineering, manufacturing operations or in-field environment data
• Once created, the virtual replica must fit somewhere in the existing IT environment: how is it connected to existing ERPs? To what extent is the approach standardized, especially if the company has different DT?
• By centralising access to the virtual replica, DT also raise the question of ownership and decision-making. Who operates the DT? How does it connect to field teams? Who is responsible in the event of a real problem?

Digital Twins combine the best of several technologies into a single solution with a proven ability to generate commercial impact. However, performance varies greatly depending on the company’s digital know-how: because DT work best when deeply integrated into the different stages of the organization – from prototyping to predictive maintenance – its performance and ROI in isolated projects is lower than when it is established at the group level for multiple projects.

2 Key Figures

53 digital twin startups 

listed worldwide (created after 2005)

Market size expected to reach $26.1bn by 2025

According to a report carried out by Grand View Research, Inc., the global twin market is projected to be worth $26.07 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 38.2% during the period 2019-2025. 

3 startups to draw inspiration from

This week, we identified three startups that we can draw inspiration from: Akselos, SightMachine, TWAICE.

Akselos

The Swiss company specializes in Digital Twins for large-scale assets and infrastructure and is already present in 5 locations worldwide.

SightMachine

The US company specializes in upstream digital twins, namely for manufacturing operations, and combines production processes and product data for a better productivity.

TWAICE

The German company empowers electric mobility by providing digital twin technology for batteries. By better predicting the aging and performance of the cells, Twaice improves the reliability of battery systems.

123Fab #6

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

Going “contactless” is kind of trendy right now, and we didn’t want to miss out on industry awareness.

Non-destructive testing (NDT) has been around for some time and covers a wide range of underlying technologies. By allowing the examination or evaluation of an asset (materials, parts, assembly, etc.) without altering or even touching it, NDT detects conditions or discontinuities that may or may not impact the integrity of an asset and is therefore used for both in-field inspection and in-line manufacturing quality control. The main application sectors for NDT are Energy (nuclear, oil and gas, power generation), Aerospace, Construction, Automotive and Medical. The technologies enabling NDT range from a very low technology approach (visual inspection) to various methods of computer-aided perception: magnetic particle, liquid penetrant, eddy current, acoustic emission, ultrasonic…

While some major incumbent operators are well established (Mistras, Olympus, General Electric…), startups are increasingly challenging the market with new technologies such as AI-empowered computer vision (even from standard devices) or Terahertz. The former remains useful for surface inspection and can very quickly assess and categorize defaults. As the hardware is not the most important part of the tool, the cameras can be integrated on different supports (ground robots, drones, wearables) and allow easy data acquisition. The latter is dedicated to seeing through coatings, metallic surfaces and inside dielectric materials (such as plastics and composites) to inspect various layers and is used to assess production mistakes such as abnormalities from foreign material inclusions, disbond and delamination or heat damage for instance. As terahertz is non-ionizing, new applications in the food industry are also being tested.

NDT is particularly relevant for industry as it achieves 3 main objectives:

• Operational and environmental performance: when used on a production line, NDT makes it possible to test a greater number of parts, thus reducing the volume of waste in the event of a defect identified in a production batch. In the automotive parts industry, for example, instead of testing 1 part out of 100 of a composite component (it is necessary to regularly break down a product to look for assembly defects), NDT allows each unit to be scanned at the end of the line and the integrity of the components to be guaranteed.
• More uptime: when used on site, NDT systems do not interrupt operations and allow maintenance and inspection to be carried out without altering production capacity.
• Compliance & safety: NDT meets the needs of a safer and more reliable workplace by allowing a thorough and regular assessment of assets, thus increasing machine reliability. It is also a strong ally for compliance – insurance companies, for example, find use cases for car damage expertise using computer vision analysis.

However, contactless inspection does not mean that it is free of human interaction. Inspectors still have a crucial role to play in NDT, both in the acquisition and evaluation of NDT data, and are therefore subject to human error. One of the key challenges in NDT is therefore to improve the replicability of measurements and to smooth out the human factor.

2 Key Figures

94 non-destructive testing startups 

listed worldwide (created after 2005)

Market size expected to reach $30,312bn by 2025

According to PR Newswire, the global non-destructive testing equipment market was valued at USD 14,099.26 million in 2019, and is projected to be worth $30,312.98 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 6% during the period 2020-2025.

3 startups to draw inspiration from

This week, we identified three startups that we can draw inspiration from: Novosound, Lynx Inspection and Teratonics.

Novosound

Novosound is a Scottish startup specialized in ultrasound sensors. The company focuses on Oil & Gas, Aerospace, Nuclear and Medical.

Lynx Inspection

The Canadian company focuses on X-ray imagery with computer vision. Defaults are found and analyzed by comparing features in the X-ray images with the expected results from a corresponding sequence of simulated images. The company positions itself as a cheaper and faster alternative to computed tomography.

Teratonics

Teratonics is a French company offering Terahertz analysis. The company focuses on the automotive, aerospace and energy sectors.

123Fab #5

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an alternative approach to industrial manufacturing, which consists of adding layers of materials in precise shapes until the expected product is obtained. Additive manufacturing, often referred to as 3D printing, uses digital technologies to bring agility and efficiency to the manufacturing industry. It requires the combination of a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software, printing hardware and materials (metals, thermoplastics, ceramics or biochemicals). Use cases today are mainly focused on small batch and high quality units (aerospace, military) and components with complex geometry (automotive, health). While additive manufacturing reached the top of its Hype Curve in 2013, it has seen renewed interest in the light of Covid-19: the general questioning of the supply chain’s dependence on Asian countries is giving new impetus to the idea of shortening supply chains and producing closer to the consumer market. The order established by Western companies — produce in the East, sell in the West — is being questioned.

Based on our current understanding of today’s challenges and opportunities, we wanted to share 3 main beliefs about AM:

• AM must be a lever for a more sustainable economy. AM has a direct impact on the raw materials manufacturing chain: extraction > manufacturing > distribution. By assessing the overall impact of AM on a product’s energy footprint, studies (US DoE, Digital Alloys) show that additive manufacturing greatly reduces the overall energy consumption required to produce a part, in addition to the savings made by reducing the international transportation of goods. It is interesting to note that the energy required to melt and bond materials — despite the wide disparity in energy required between metals such as titanium and polymers — is greater in additive manufacturing than in traditional manufacturing to process a unit. AM requires materials to be in powder or wire form to be processed (thus requiring more pre-treatment than billets used in conventional manufacturing) and processes such as Laser Powder Bed Fusion require nearly 4 times more energy than traditional Command & Control (CNC) machining to produce the same result. However, a 3D printed part represents only about 1/4 of the total energy required by conventional manufacturing. The overall difference comes from the fact that CNC machining traditionally begins with billets. The aerospace buy-to-fly ratio (the ratio of material purchased to material used in the part being manufactured) ranges from 6:1 to 33:1, which means that up to 97% of the raw material is wasted. By adding only the material needed for the part, AM allows massive cuts here. Moving now from this product-centric vision to an international vision implies a massive shift in energy demand from manufacturing countries to Western countries. With the traditional supply chain, the energy used for manufacturing is managed by the country of manufacture (in short: Southeast Asia). With AM, it is now up to Western countries to provide the energy needed for printing and processing. Therefore, if the total energy footprint of the product decreases, this leads to a substantial increase in energy demand from Western countries.
• Mass customisation using AM is difficult. Although there is a technical justification for allowing AM to mass produce unique parts, it raises a series of questions about unit quality assurance, standardization of lifetimes and warranties, and security. Currently, producing the same quantity of a given mass product in its equivalent of custom units raises uncertainties about production time. While printing itself is becoming increasingly efficient, it still requires post-processing, which can be time-consuming and may require a traditional production line — not really suited to a highly decentralized production organization as advocates of AM often fantasize.
• Finally, AM requires a dense community to achieve maximum efficiency. A network of 3D model suppliers, decentralized production units, material suppliers, distribution and logistics providers, and circular economy/recycling experts. Today, this network is not yet fully empowered because the infrastructure — both physical and digital — is in the middle of its development.

In conclusion, the additives industry can address issues of sustainability, society and geostrategy, but if change is made, countries need to prepare the underlying infrastructure necessary to enable optimal efficiency.

2 Key Figures

220 additive manufacturing startups

listed worldwide (created after 2005)

Market size expected to reach $22bn by 2022

According to Formlabs, the 3D printing market, with sales of $6bn in 2017, is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 30.2% to reach a total market size of $22bn by 2022.

3 startups to draw inspiration from

This week, we identified three startups that we can draw inspiration from: Essentium, AMFG and Xometry.

Esentium

Essentium is a US-based startup providing printers and materials for Aerospace, Automotive, consumer goods and biomedical industries. The company works with the High Speed Extrusion process.

AMFG

AMFG is a UK company offering an end-to-end software that automates human tasks needed in the AM process, thus enabling faster and larger volume manufacturing, at a lesser cost..

Xometry

Xometry is a US company that has raised $118M to become the one-stop shop for all AM-related services. Among others, it provides a vast production-as-a-service platform connecting decentralized manufacturers with companies in need of production capacity.

123Fab #4

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

Earlier this week we mentioned the situation of warehouse workers. While we presented a few companies specialized in autonomous robots, the market for connected workers is also booming. 

Connected workers are better connected to their work environments thanks to the digital technologies they benefit from, which enable better communication, quantification and remote support. These technologies are usually a combination of hardware, software and AI. The adoption of the latter is facilitated by the increasing demand for productivity and employee safety and well-being.

Smart wearables for Industry 4.0 are therefore spreading in factories and warehouses to support workers in all their tasks. Smart headsets (headgear and goggles), mobile devices (watches, tablets) or protective gear (textiles, hearing gear) are among the most common wearables.

2 Key Figures

600 work accidents per minute in the world

(International Labor Organization)

Market size expected to reach $9.9bn by 2026

According to Polaris, the connected worker market will be worth $9.9bn by 2026.

3 startups to draw inspiration from

This week, we identified three startups that we can draw inspiration from: Fieldbit,  Parsable and Canaria.

Fieldbit

The Israeli company is specialized in connected headsets with Augmented Reality, providing employees with extensive field information.

Parsable

The US company has raised $73M to digitize industrial processes that were previously paper-based. It covers use cases such as inspection, issue management, precision work execution or training.

Canaria

The company originally won a NASA contest before applying its cognitive fatigue tracking device to industrial workers. It monitors workers’ fatigue and predicts medical events before they happen.

123Fab #3

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

Urban logistics has become an issue of significant importance over the last decade, driven by the on-demand economy, urban population growth and the growing share of e-commerce.

Companies, especially those specialising in last mile delivery, have recently come under fire. While finding the right balance between maintaining optimal service during the Covid-19 crisis and protecting their workers and contractors is far from easy, people were quick to denounce practices deemed unfair and dangerous (Amazon not offering paid sick leave, Instacart not providing protective and cleaning suppliers…)

The last mile delivery market is undergoing a major shift, with innovative solutions transforming the way goods and parcels are delivered. Whether it involves drones or ground-based robots, autonomous delivery raises a series of questions that go beyond technology and price: how ready are cities to accept autonomous robots? What does this imply in terms of infrastructure? How can we ensure the safe movement of goods and people, and who is responsible? What would be the effect on employment?

2 Key Figures

35 autonomous last mile delivery startups

listed worldwide (founded after 2005)

Out of 137 last mile delivery startups, 26 of the 35 autonomous last mile ones are specialized in drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).

Market size expected to reach $75.6bn by 2030

According to Allied Market Research, the autonomous last mile delivery market is poised to grow up to a $75.6bn business by 2030.

3 startups to draw inspiration from

This week, we identified three startups that we can draw inspiration from: Matternet, Starship, Flytrex.

Matternet

This US company sells an integrated solution (drone, software and docking platform) to deliver packages up to 2kg within a 20km radius. The company is authorized to fly over Swiss cities and focuses on health deliveries.

Starship

Designs autonomous robots able to navigate by themselves in city centers and deliver packages within a 6km radius. The company has raised $80 M.

Flytrex

This israeli company is specialized in autonomous drones for Food and small retail deliveries. The company also operates in Iceland and in a private estate in North Dakota.

123Fab #2

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

Country lockdowns should be seen as an opportunity to rethink industrial autonomy, especially in such fundamental sectors as agriculture. If feeding a world population that is expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050 is already a huge challenge — according to the FAO we need to increase our growing capacity by 70 percent — it is an even greater challenge in these times of closed borders.

Over the past 15 years, we have witnessed the development of new methods to grow food in unlikely places, without soil or sunlight: hydroponics (plants submerged in liquid solutions containing macro-nutrients), aquaponics (a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics) and aeroponics (plants are grown in an air or mist environment). These urban and vertical farms are not owned by farmers but often by VC-backed tech entrepreneurs who have decided to take advantage of the maturity of crucial technologies such as: LED lighting, computer vision for crop analysis and disease identification and automation & robotics.

As local agriculture has become an integral part of urban life, vertical and urban farms have shown unparalleled performance in terms of water savings (up to 95% less than traditional agriculture) and yield per square meter. However, the substantial initial costs, energy consumption and price per square meter maintain a veil of uncertainty about its sustainability. Japan was the first country to vastly adopt this technology in 2010, yet 60% of its 200 vertical farms are still operating at a loss.

But don’t be mistaken. Vertical and urban farming isn’t here to replace traditional farms — but to complement traditional agriculture by creating artifical arable land. In a context of diminshing returns and soil depletion, vertical and urban farming can relieve some of the stress of conventional farming by growing the most basic crops off the ground.

2 Key Figures

200 vertical and urban farming startups

listed worldwide (founded after 2004)

Today, most of the AgTech startups are building their own technology to increase the optimal use of vertical space, balance the use of energy and ease the monitoring and harvesting of crops.

Market size expected to reach $5.8bn by 2022

Markets & Markets estimates the industry to be worth $5.8 billion by 2022, with a 24.8% CAGR from 2019 onwards. Yet, the dynamic market represents a small share of the farming industry: $3bn vs $104bn for the US market in 2024.

3 startups to draw inspiration from

This week, we identified three startups that we can draw inspiration from: AeroFarms, Agrilution and Illumitex.

AeroFarms

The 15-year old US startup is one of the pioneers in indoor farming. To date, AeroFarms has raised $240M in capital and runs a 2,800 square meter farm in New Jersey.

Agrilution

The German startup was among the first to focus on high-end B2C vertical farming. The startup was recently acquired by Miele (leading manufacturer of premium domestic appliances).

Illumitex

The US startup used to specialize in LED lights for indoor and vertical farming. Recently, Illumitex shifted its focus to provide visualization and AI for controlled environment agriculture.

123Fab #1

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

Country lockdowns and the wave of disinfection should not only be seen as a factor of economic slowdown but as an opportunity to adopt new habits. 

The shift from ownership to access is a widely spread societal change that we strongly believe in — especially in the area of transportation. This new paradigm has fuelled the growth and success of many companies namely in the sharing economy and has become popular across all kinds of assets: houses (Airbnb), boats (Click & Boat), construction machinery (Tracktor) and much more. 

The Covid-19 pandemic calls into question the health and safety standards that prevail today for these usages:

• While you can trust someone to take care of your car for a few days and not crash it into a wall, can you trust them to wash their hands before getting behind the wheel? Or to sneeze into their elbow? 
• How reluctant would you be to rent a car on GetAround or Virtuo if you were clearly shown the concentration of bacteria on the steering wheel and gear stick?

At the end of the day, it’s not much different from taking the subway or the train, although our hygiene standards are much lower.

2 Key Figures

50 diinfection startups

listed worlwide (founded after 2010)

Today, the vast (bio)decontamination market is mainly focused on the health care and food industry verticals but it is beginning to spread to other ones, including the transportation sector.

Market size expected to reach $175 million by 2024

Markets & Markets estimates the industry to be worth $175 million by 2024, with a 6.1% CAGR from 2019. The relatively dynamic market is namely driven by technological advancements on the active ingredients (bio or not) and spraying technics. 

3 startups to draw inspiration from

This week, we identified three startups that we can draw inspiration from: Devea, Lidit, and Kinnos.

Devea

Sells an airborne surface disinfection system which uses centrifugation to produce an extremely fine fog (microdroplets technology).

Lidit

Sells an airborne surface disinfection system which uses a cold biocide nebulization technology.

Kinnos

Sells a color additive for disinfectants designed to ensure full coverage and to minimize over-coverage and missed sprayed targets.