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Founders: Patrick Liddy, Aidan McDonnell
Elevator pitch: augmented reality software for industrial use
Funding: €600,000 seed round
Status: working with 20 customers
THE WHOLE SECTOR of augmented reality has seen a lot of hype, sometimes to its detriment, especially for consumers. But in the area of industrial processes, it may have found its calling.
Dublin augmented reality (AR) startup UtilityAR raised a seed round of €600,000 at the end of last year to put that to the test. The investment came from Business Venture Partners, Halo Business Angel Network and Enterprise Ireland.
It builds software for augmented reality glasses used by engineers and technicians, which display data visually for the user, according to co-founder Patrick Liddy.
“We build software to help engineers, technicians, technical workers of all sorts to see information and the procedures they should be following or the assets that they’re working on in their vision while they’re doing the task,” he said.
The startup, founded in 2018, can link glasses up with internet-connected equipment or IoT devices to display real-time functioning data or flag any maintenance issues.
Take for example a technician that needs to change the filter on an air handling unit, which takes multiple steps to complete.
“In the past that might have been text saying do step A, then step B. Now you’re able to watch short 10 second videos (through the glasses) which describe each step and help you more clearly understand what you need to do.”
The technician could also do a video call back to a remote colleague and show them exactly what they’re looking at via the glasses.
“They’ll be able to see on their computer what you’re doing in real-time and draw annotations to talk you through how to fix that problem.”
Industries such as pharmaceuticals and workers at data centres are where UtilityAR sees the most interest, he said.
“You can contact the data centre and they’ll walk and show you your specific server right now in real-time and allow you to instruct them what you want to do.”
Origins
The idea for UtilityAR has roots back in Liddy and his co-founder’s previous venture Activation Energy, an energy software company that was acquired in 2014 by US multinational Enel X.
It was here that Liddy observed some of the challenges that technicians faced in quickly accessing the info they need for a job on site.
“When I came across augmented reality glasses, I knew that was part of the solution.”
UtilityAR has secured 20 customers to date that are now using its tech in various industrial settings.
The startup’s business model is software-as-a-service, charging a monthly fee to use the software.
Liddy said good software is key for making AR glasses usable, otherwise they’re just a trinket.
“The glasses are an equivalent of a PC or a tablet, they’re a computing device and while you can think of them as something special, really they are just a computing device with a different display and a different form factor to what you’re used to,” he said.
“We’re a software company and we sell software-as-a-service and we get paid a monthly fee for our software service. Then we can also work with the customer to integrate the whole system for them, we can train their staff, we can help them create content.”
Real value
UtilityAR still faces challenges around hype and separating the wheat from the chaff in augmented reality.
“The key thing for us is to find a use case where real value is going to be delivered for the customer immediately,” Liddy said.
“There’s a lot of hype … it is true that sometimes businesses are investing in these things just to make sure they stay abreast with this technology.”
UtilityAR wants to be an in-depth service provider for AR solutions, deploying the tech in areas where it makes sense.
“The worst-case scenario for us is a customer who buys the product but then due to not having enough internal resources in their organisation, never gets to roll out the project properly,” Liddy said.
With its €600,000 seed round in tow, the company is looking to 2020 as a year of growth, especially by targeting new customers in the UK as well as growing out the team.
“Our engineering and core will probably be predominantly in Ireland and then after that, we’ll be looking at the UK for sales and in some cases, customer support where it makes sense to have those people sited more locally.”
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Written by Jonathan Keane and posted on Fora.ie
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Only recently it was 400k + unemployed & 14% rate
Now 250k & 12% rate.
I’m sure I’m missing something, but….
Unfortunately, you are.
The 400K+ figure is the Live Register. That includes people who work 2 days or fewer a week.
This figure is only people who don’t work at all.
Correction : people than don’t work and are on the welfare system , it doesn’t include the dependants, students and other unemployed people that don’t qualified for the dole and neither they so call job incentive schemes such as scambridge! They are playing the numbers, there is a partial truth in this information. The real one is bigger than it.
For statistical purposes…. yes.
Well done Job bridge and stupid Fetac courses for massaging the figures
Job Bridge is a scam by Inda which robbed private pension schemes, but some of Fetac courses, particularly when they include ms office are quite worthwhile.
So just to get this clear, the Live Register (last figure I saw was 395,411 in 8th January) includes the above figure of 253,200 but additionally includes people working for 2 days or less, people on JobsBridge, FETAC courses, dependents and also includes Students? Surely not full-time students?
I actually got the number of days wrong. The Live Register includes people who work up to three days a week.
It doesn’t include people on Jobsbridge, FETAC etc., but it does call out the numbers in an appendix.
The numbers on these only increased by 3,000 over the year, so they can’t account for 60,000 more in work
http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/lr/liveregisterjanuary2014/#.Uw9g8RD1aF8
Thanks Chris – are you’re saying the Live Register does not include those on JobsBridge, FETAC, etc? I had thought that anyone on JobsBridge was in receipt of a Social Welfare payment and therefore counted under the Live Register? Do we know an estimate for the total number of participants in JobsBridge?
Jeremy, yes you are missing something, a degree in maths. But not the kind of maths we all know. Its all about how you look at the figures. For instance if you are unemployed and doing a FAS course you are now not unemployed. Splitting hairs, if you are signing for credits you are not unemployed, you just don’t have job
I’m on a jobs-bridge scheme, I get the dole from the social welfare, plus an extra €50 a week, also from the social welfare / taxpayer (for working a 39 hour week with occasional unpaid overtime).
The company I work for pays me nothing and gets tax breaks for taking on jobs-bridge people. I am not on the live register so am considered employed by these figures, despite the fact that I am costing the tax payer more money than if I was just on the dole.
I don’t blame the company I’m working for, they’re giving good training and treat us well, business wise they’d be mad not to take the offer of free labour. The government however, I feel have sold me into slavery.
You are getting free training you should be delighted
There is no fate but that which we make for ourselves.
(Lame joking aside, you’re on a better road than if you were sitting at home watching Judge Judy.)
I know it’s better than sitting on the dole, that’s why I’m doing it, nobody forced me to. I’d rather be doing something than sitting around going slowly crazy with the boredom, and of course, more experience never hurt anyone.
I just don’t understand why the government thinks it’s a good idea. If they weren’t getting free labour they’d have to pay someone to do it.
I also lost a paid job and later saw the same job (albeit under a different title) advertised as a jobs-bridge internship. Something is not right about the whole thing. The work needs to be done, paid or unpaid, so why give them free labour and tax breaks?
The Oscar Traynor Road??
@Sarah,
Look at it this way, you are now considered employed – you have a job. It’s always easier to get another job if you are employed. Start applying for other jobs (with better pay/conditions) while you are on Jobsbridge. If the company you are with give you good training and treat you well, then maybe there will be a full-time job at the end of it. I’m not trying to justify Jobsbridge but you won’t get anything handed to you on a plate anymore.
@ Mike: It’s not employment if she’s not being paid. Yes, she might be able to lever a paid job out of it but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s being treated unfairly right now.
@ Sarah: Fantastic post. I’m also unemployed and looking at JobBridge for the reasons you’ve mentioned. I’ll take any opportunity that I get, but it’s still blatant exploitation.
@Aoife,
Sorry but that attitude is wrong. If you’re getting up every morning and putting in a shift somewhere – you should consider yourself employed. Yes the money is crap but you should use it as a stepping stone to something better. We’ve all been unfairly untreated at some stages in our lives – that motivates us to do better. I was out of work in 2010 – the job I got after 9 months paid me EUR12,000 net pa- which works out at EUR250 per week, which is about the same as you get on Jobsbridge! I had a mortgage to pay at the time also. What did I do? I proved my worth to the company and was rewarded with a good salary and conditions 10 months later.
BTW, using the words ‘slavery’ and ‘exploitation’ are hyperbolic – you’re not a child working in a mine or working in a sweat shop in the far east. A little perspective.
No. In that situation you’re working but you’re not employed. Employment is a contractual arrangement whereby you get paid for the work you do and have legal protections such as the minimum wage, which used to the norm in this country. Right now, our government is incentivising businesses to ignore those norms and undercut the minimum wage (and probably, as Sarah points out, actually turning some paying jobs into JobBridge internships). I’ll work with the system as it is – because I don’t lack motivation or ambition – but I’m not going to stop criticising it.
On a personal level, fair play to you for dealing with unemployment the way you did. You had it much tougher than I do (I don’t have major financial commitments), but that doesn’t make JobBridge any less exploitative. (And yes, expecting people to work for you without paying them is exploitation, even If there are worse off people in the world.)
Corrections: “used to *be* the norm in this country” and “even if there are worse off people in the world”.
I didn’t exactly live up to the claims in my CV that I have excellent English writing skills in that post…
Em what tax breaks do companies get for taking on people on Jobbridge?
Also if you don’t like working in your words “as a slave” then don’t, you could take the BTEA and go back and retrain or you could just sit on your backside watching Jeremy Kyle all day. The worlds your oyster!
@Sarah i probably would go anonymous if i was attacking the company i work for. Hang in there though things will get better for you… hard work pays off.
I see your point on how companies are exploiting such a scheme. I also think you are right talking the position then sitting at home.
But for the government to call this employment when the welfare system is funding it is just massaging figures
i am sick of these spin articles,what about the tens of thousands of irish people that had to leave the country ?? they should be included and what about the people on those ridiculous schemes getting an extra 20 euro a week to pretend to work so the government can say they are off the live register !! its more spin and BS
Facts hurt whingers
hahaha go on tinman you’ll have to do better than that to troll me :-)
Why would I troll a troll
The whinger brigade is out.
No I don’t think students, oaps, school children or those on a 1 year working holiday in Australia should be included in unemployment figures!
what the fuq drugs are you taking ?? students OAP’s and school children ??? hahahah i dont know who you talking to but it certainly isnt me and for the record there is alot more to the visa’s in austrailia than one year flat visa and i can tell you now the vast majority of people i know have emigrated for well over a year and either if you had no work in this country and had to leave then yes you should be included in the stats for people who couldnt work in ireland,its not a whinge its an opinion,now jog on
ironman i LOVE you,you are the greatest troll ever !!! :-)
Take the head out
Don’t forget the thousands who are out of work and do not qualify for either Job seekers allowance or benefits!
Yes, there are tens of thousands unemployed who are not eligible for any benefits.
There are around 3.3 million people of working age, 1.9 million working.
A huge amount of people want to work but appear on no government figures, once their JSA runs out.
There are plenty of jobs being advertised at the moment.
It’s the ‘I wouldn’t work for that’ attitude that leaves them on the dole.
There is nothing out there for people with not much experience or qualifications. Unless you want to sell gas and electricity for commission.
There are 3 different shop assistant and a coffee shop and a juice bar job being advertised in Omni shopping center in santry as of yesterday afternoon
Does any one want to buy some gas?
The problem with those types of jobs is that if you’re highly trained in a specific area which has few jobs, the shops take one look at you and say “she’s overqualified, she’ll leave as soon as she gets something else”. And they’re right. I would.
Ah I wouldn’t work as any of them.
I like to put my feet up
Just as well, you’d miss your Judge Judy each day
I don’t like her I watch Jeremy kyle. But I was only joking with you I’ll be getting the 17A to santry tomorrow with a few C.V’s.
In fairness,some jobs are looking for highly skilled tradesmen for €9-11ph.
On the upside things are defiantly picking up.
@Boleyn
“There are plenty of jobs being advertised at the moment. ”
And I’m sure people are applying for them all. But no amount of applications can force an employer to give you a job… People seem to forget that job seeking is a two way street. The jobseeker has to apply for the job but the employer has to give them the job.
28 applicants for every job.
That stat gets much higher for lower end jobs.
Not included in the dole figures are the amount of self employed people that are also now unemployed.
What’s exactly wrong with working for 9-11 euro an hour?
Nothing!!!!
But when your spend years learning your trade and continue into further education to expand your knowledge in your chosen field,they wage should merit the experience and qualifications.
Why would you work for that in a stressful environment when you can get the same wage serving burgers.
And how many have emigrated; or have been ‘persuaded’ to take up another useless FAS course; or an job ridge internship; or an gateway job; or gone on disability instead.
Population is rising- opps don’t ya just hate when facts get in the way of a rant
There’s been an increase of 60,000 in work. That can’t be explained away by emigration.
Chris they don’t like facts
Is that full time work with a proper wage ?
The 80,000 new pps numbers to EU citizens goes some way to explaining it.
A proper wage is whatever you show your superior you are worth
Ironman
There is no way that you are holding down a job and trolling the journal 24/7
But it can by adult education and button paying job bridge schemes,wake up
I don’t think entitlement to social welfare payments is based on a person’s name. But if it was, you’d be perfectly entitled to it in the UK with your thuroughly English name!
Who says I am on benefit? And for your info, you troll, I am German by birth but resident in Ireland since 23 years. You can also google me and find out that I have meaningfully contributed to society. And now I will change my online name to Tanja Kidman or Kilgannon, to get racists trolls like you off my back
Big green thumbs up
Nonsense, lies and spin. 13.8 % unemployed in May 2013 (official figures) and now down to 12.1%. For unemployment to drop that fast there’d need to an economic boom in the last seven months!
Election propaganda
I’m on the dole an flat out workin.its the only job
Working and Claiming?
Stay classy
Hope that’s not your real name there Chris ;)
On the contrary, I hope it is.
Crikey Chris – things have really gone downhill for u. Only 15 yrs ago u were banging in the goals for Spurs in the Premier Lge.
Does that count young people like myself who can’t get even €5 a week in social welfare or access to fás just because I live it at home and parents are working?
Very sorry to hear to that you have a roof over your head and parents who have jobs. That must be terrible for you!
Ugh shut up, do you know how irritating it is to live in a small town where jobs are very hard to come by and not be able to receive any welfare because you live at home and your parents are self employed. Ya it’s all well and good to have a roof over our heads but we need our own money to do what we like with and not depend on our parents even when we want to go get a poxy bottle of coke or something from the shop. Don’t talk about something you know nothing about!!
I am in the exact same situation as you . I bloody made things happen rather than moping. Became a distributor for ForeverLiving and I am now earning decent money. Hit me up on Twitter if you are interested in a pathway to a career man….
I thought I was the only one! It is so disheartening being stuck between not being able to get a job that will pay you a living wage and not being able to get any social welfare to get you through the tough times – spending days and days searching for jobs that just aren’t out there in my field.
There must be thousands like us, ineligible for any social welfare yet searching for jobs! I can’t even go on a ScamBridge scheme even if I wanted to – I rang up some company who participates in the scheme and asked do you take people who are not on the dole? I got a curt reply, “Not interested, sorry”. So even my brief thought of participating in one of these schemes out of sheer desperation was shot down.
Shove people onto useless training courses and force the rest to emigrate and you magically have your reduction in unemployment. This will all be timed with tax cuts and stimulus right before the election to ensure 5 more years of FG rule. Hurray!
Your right hurray it’s fantastic news :)
I don’t see why people consider training courses useless. I did them before and got jobs from what I learned. All knowledge and training is useful. Its the sitting on your arse moaning that’s useless.
And I’m one of them.
Lies and spin again from this dishonest government , frabricated figures, it’s down to emigration , forced button paying government schemes, adult education, why is this rubbish appearing now, to make the lying government look good , and to deflect from the lies and goins on of MR Shatter?
Whingers hate the truth :D
Ironman how many times do you need to say the same thing in one thread?
@Neal
“Ironman how many times do you need to say the same thing in one thread?”
At least 347…
Having looked at the comments over the last day It’s obvious to me Ironman is trolling either that or a Fine Gael party member (which is worse?!)
The 12% unemployment rate is clearly bullshit even Stevie Wonder can see this, the interns, scambridge sheme, CE scheme, those that don’t take welfare, those that have emigrated,those on Fas courses, those on Enterprise allowance etc etc all not considered unemployed.
Take a look around , it’s as obvious as a smelly fart in a elevator with two people who done it; that unemployment is far far greater than 12.1%.
‘The Latest figures’ ha what other nonsense don’t even show or even suggest how they came to 12.1%.
Like the old joke goes,
How can you tell a politican is lying?. His(her) lips are moving.
well put Colin. Im in college and no longer counted on the live register. IM UNEMPLOYED. people need to wake up to the PROPAGANDA.
Your in COLLEGE you are in education, you are not UNEMPLOYED.
Sorry YOU’RE!
@Conor. Springboard courses are held in colleges, the students on these courses still get jobseekers allowance and when course finishes more than likely will still be on jobseekers allowance
I’m not talking about springboard, you can start a full time degree as a mature student while taking the BTEA. Why do you think Springboard courses don’t work?
Fantastic work by the government and a further announcement if a plan for 10000 more jobs made in the past 24 hours. Truly fantastic work by our great leader :)
god it must be awful smelly up edna’s rear end ironman or is that what ur pet name is by edna your his ‘ironman’
@ironman
Your comments smell familiar…. Breaking News familiar…
The opposition and supporters will be raging…
Whingers ain’t gonna like this :D
Can anyone explain the discrepancy between the employment figures for 25-34 year olds and the one for the population in general?
Some of the comments are very harsh over 10% out of work is a lot of people, when you consider maybe 5000 jobs on the FAS web site at any one time it’s still a lot of people chasing a job. Over the last few years I have seen very normal capable people really struggle to find employment. There is a huge element of blind luck or your face just does not suit the HR scoring matrix.
I wonder what the figure is for people at home not working or drawing anything but can’t go to work or would end up worse off!
The fantastic five point plan putting Ireland back to work, thanks Enda :)
If the figures are going down why are the Government spending millions on this tomorrow? http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/JobPath.aspx
Emigration
Its good news all round. The glass is half full :))
In Australia at the moment, usually read doom and gloom of this journal and also rte , everyone seems to be working in my home town everyone is happy out!
On the way home from work today saw four job notices on shop windows suppose it’s a sign things improving. Whatever you might think of present at least they have created environment for job creation. Well done.
Lies masquerading as statistics. Wonderful Irish propaganda
Beware of flying pigs.
And there are people on Ireland who have 2 or more jobs. The unions are finished as “1 Man 1 Job” does not alloy anymore.
150,000 are teachers.
the majority of jobs were in agriculture forestry and fishing. how does that make sense have the government gone round stealing tractors, maybe f.g are handing out fishing rods to those on the live register.
Say what you want about FF, the policies they enacted and continued by this government have worked, there are more people working than last year and more again than the year before.
I will indeed say what I want about FF, but its hard to concentrate on what to say while youve got your head so far up your own arse and the arses of those crooks
…first world problems. Could be being burnt with a rubber tyre, or being rapped in India. Perspective
i’m willing to work for €2 an hour. Any offers anyone ???
You would want to be highly skilled, I can get a days work out of my employees in certain parts if the world for that price
Ok, €2 a day will have to do. When do I start ?
Enda is doing fantastic work
It appears to be dropping.
With milk quotas are on the way out in a few years farms are gearing up for expansion, a lot of jobs are being created in the agriculture and food sector,yet i know a farm that cant get operators, maybe working on the farm just dont cut it because its dirty and smelly which can be quite difficult to shake off,either that or they are all in Australia.
have your say