Sheffield-based FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics, whose manufacturing data analytics platform is ‘unlocking five-fold increases in shopfloor productivity’, has secured a second round of angel investment and Innovate UK funding worth £1 million, to accelerate its growth and support manufacturers across the country.

FourJaw, the machine monitoring data analytics start-up born out of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), secured the investment with support from many within the UK investor community, notably NorthInvest and SFC Capital, along with a substantial six-figure grant from Innovate UK, to help develop next-level data analytics tools for small and medium-size manufacturers.

FourJaw co-founder and CEO Chris Iveson (pictured front), said: “We are delighted investors share our passion for bringing affordable, quick-to-install data analytics to the UK’s precision engineering sector, which is vital to building a more competitive UK economy. This new round of funding empowers us to strengthen our team, accelerate growth, and deliver our exciting product roadmap as we forge ahead on our journey to change the world of manufacturing productivity.”

The Sheffield-based company’s digital manufacturing platform, likened to a fitness watch for manufacturing machinery, is designed to work on every machine, from legacy manual lathes through to ‘state of the art’ machining centres.

Quick and easy to install, the tool provides manufacturers with accurate and up-to-date information that enables the entire production team to work together to accurately time job durations, maximise uptime, unblock bottlenecks, and increase productivity. Manufacturers finally have the smart tech to prevail in an uncertain and challenging global market.

Game-changing technology
Stephen Page, CEO at early-stage VC SFC Capital, which has supported FourJaw since the start, said: “We knew FourJaw had created a game-changing technology that would break through the sector’s scepticism surrounding Industry 4.0. Its data-driven technology is right for its time, helping drive a manufacturing renaissance for post-Brexit, post-Covid Britain where productivity and competitiveness are essential to the economy.”

Bart Simpson, FourJaw’s chairman and former senior operations director at Autodesk, said: “It has been great to see investors providing sustained finance for a technology that is changing the face of precision engineering in the UK. FourJaw has created a beautifully simple tool that is affordable, adaptable, and accessible to the vast majority of machining shopfloors in the UK.

“It elegantly sidesteps the costly and invasive big-ticket alternatives, to deliver the right information at the right time, securely from the cloud. A tablet gives staff operatives and managers easy-to-digest data that is driving big improvements in productivity, thus securing UK jobs and international markets against fierce global competition.”

Jordan Dargue, board director of NorthInvest and head of Access to Finance at the Innovation SuperNetwork, said: “We were delighted to once again team up with co-founders Chris and Robin and assist them in completing another round of angel investment, as well as securing a grant from Innovate UK via the Regional Angel Investment Accelerator Programme.

“This grant has been pivotal in enabling FourJaw to leverage further angel investment from NorthInvest and the newly formed South Yorkshire Angel Hub, demonstrating the influence the programme has in supercharging funding rounds for Northern entrepreneurs.”

The Regional Angel Investment Accelerator (RAIA) programme is led by the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) and delivered by NorthInvest and the Innovation SuperNetwork in partnership with the UK Business Angels Association.

FourJaw’s digital manufacturing platform is now being rolled out across the UK to precision engineering supply chains serving high-value manufacturing sectors including aerospace, energy (oil, gas, civil nuclear, and renewables), medical, defence, automotive, motorsport, machine knives, and consumer goods.