The Fredericton-based Industrial Internet of Things company has been gaining international attention lately, and now it has named former CTO Scott Everett as its new CEO. He replaces Richard Jones, who will remain on the board of directors.
“Scott has grown from co-founder and visionary to an executive leader doing a great job shaping the strategic direction of the company, and now is a good time for me to step away and let Eigen continue on its upward trajectory,” said Jones in a statement.
A graduate of the PropelICT tech accelerator, Eigen’s product, Intellexon, helps manufacturers improve production efficiency and reduce waste. The system uses algorithms developed under the guidance of researcher and co-founder Rickey Dubay at the University of New Brunswick. Everett worked with Dubay and has been the technical expert developing the product for the past few years.
Intellexon selects data from sensors and other sources in a customer’s plant and sends the relevant data to the cloud, where it is analyzed. Finally, it sends information back to the plant, where action is taken. All of this happens in real time, so the actions are precise. With offices in Fredericton and Toronto, Eigen is working with partners, including Oregon’s FLIR Systems Inc., the world’s largest thermal camera and sensor maker, to develop Intellexon to suit these customers’ needs.
Having previously raised a bit of seed funding, the company has now received $250,000 from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. NBIF has now invested a total of $500,000 in the company. The other investors are BDC Capital, which invested $100,000, and a range of angels. The company is listed as one of the portfolio companies of East Valley Ventures, a division of Mariner Partners that channels private money into startups.
Eigen Places Third at Cisco Event in Dubai
Last week, Texas computer maker Dell unveiled its Dell IoT Solutions Partner Program to help build an ecosystem to help customers navigate the fragmented IoT landscape and identify the right technologies to develop solutions. Eigen is one of the partners in the program.
In December, Eigen won a US$25,000 cash prize by placing third at the second annual Cisco Innovation Grand Challenge in Dubai. Because of the bronze showing, Eigen was given a long-term relationship with Cisco, the global maker of networking equipment and a huge proponent of the Internet of Things. The top three finalists have VIP access to industry, investment and business experts.
Also in December, when CB Insights listed the 100 companies worldwide influencing the IoT market, Eigen made the list in the industrial category.