2023年5月8日

Jamel Toppin为《福布斯》年代trongArm技术,30岁以下的工伤预防公司开始明矾Sean Petterson是被私人股本公司收购industrial-wearables市场震动。“我们将与另一家公司合并汇总的一部分在我们的行业更有意义,”Petterson告诉《福布斯》。他拒绝透露该公司进行收购或透露收购价格。Petterson, 32岁,是出现在2017年30岁以下列表在制造业和工业公司的努力可穿戴防护技术,有助于产业工人避免受伤。当我们最后赶上了他,2022年1月,他筹集了5000万美元,2亿美元的估值,由驱动资本,加快启动的可穿戴设备的生产和销售。但过去一年艰难StrongArm,许多风投支持的公司,如融资枯竭。“我们准备度过一个艰难的经济,我们燃烧(现金)快,“Petterson说。“我们基本上是优化盈利能力和努力,坦率地说,找到新的资本。“当公司试图筹集新的风险投资在一个粗略的市场在冬天,私募股权提供了和该公司抓住了这个机会。StrongArm布鲁克林办公室的搬迁(已经上市的“永久停业”在谷歌)和计划很大程度上远程操作,Petterson,谁将留在公司作为首席执行官,搬到丹佛。 The StrongArm name and products will remain. StrongArm, which had revenue of $10 million in 2021 and had hoped to reach $25 million in 2022, was always personal for Petterson. His father, a construction worker, had a fatal heart attack in his early 50s on the roof of a job site. The younger Petterson came up with the idea for StrongArm while studying product design at the Rochester Institute of Technology and founded the company in 2011. “The main thing was to make something with an impact in memory of my dad and it’s working out so I’m feeling good about it,” Petterson said. Workplace injuries are a major problem for blue-collar workers, whom StrongArm calls “industrial athletes,” but wearables have been tough to design and slow to live up to their promise. StrongArm’s first exoskeletons, built to reduce arm fatigue, avoid muscle strains and prevent back injuries, went through multiple iterations. Then, as artificial intelligence infiltrated numerous industries, customers began asking for more data from smaller devices. StrongArm shrank its wearables down to attach to a worker’s hip or place between the shoulder blades with an X-pack harness. The startup also cranked up the data collected with sensors and set up an AI dashboard to analyze it with promises of both injury reduction and a healthier bottom line. By January 2022, the company had deployed more than 30,000 devices for use by workers of customers that included Walmart and Toyota. Walmart said in May 2021 that it had rolled out StrongArm’s technology across 6,000 workers in 18 buildings, and was seeing results as ergonomic-related injuries for workers who used the devices fell nearly 65% in the first year and dropped an additional 27% in year two and 16% in year three. StrongArm faces competition in the market from startups that include Modjoul and Voxel. Modjoul, founded by AIG’s former head of claims Eric Martinez, received investment from Amazon’s $1 billion industrial innovation fund in April 2022. Venture-backed Voxel, meanwhile, counts Office Depot, Michaels and Dollar Tree