Palaszczuk Government-backed startup secures success with activity tracker for machinery

A startup which received $100,000 in funding from the Palaszczuk Government’s Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas fund, has secured a series of major contracts ahead of this week’s international trade delegation to Tel Aviv.

Movus – which developed an app-controlled sensor to monitor the health of industrial machinery and detect failures before they happen – recently signed deals with Anglo American, Glencore, the University of Queensland and a New Caledonian firm.

Minister for Innovation, Science and the Digital Economy Leeanne Enoch today (Wednesday) congratulated the Brisbane-based startup on its success and said it was a great example of how the government was supporting Queensland businesses to turn their ideas into action.

“Advance Queensland and its Ignite Ideas Fund are about backing businesses with great ideas to make those ideas a reality – creating jobs for Queenslanders     and making a strong contribution to the knowledge economy of the future,” Ms Enoch said.

“It just goes to show that with a bit of a leg up, our local businesses with great ideas can take on the world.”

MOVUS CEO and founder Brad Parsons said the company had been able to create five new jobs as a direct result of last year’s $100,000 Ignite Ideas fund grant.

“The grant has allowed us to double our staff numbers – securing the grant was crucial to the ongoing success of our company,” Mr Parsons said.

MOVUS is part of this week’s delegation 11 successful Queensland AgTech startups to Tel Aviv – a global hotspot in innovation – with funding through the Advance Queensland initiative.

Israel is home to more than 300 multinational corporations with innovation operations in the region. It is ranked as the number two startup ecosystem in the world, after United States’ Silicon Valley, and boasts the highest amount of startups per capita in the world.

Mr Parsons said the FitMachine was a machine condition monitoring solution powered by artificial intelligence. It is being used to monitor machines on sites in all mainland Australian states and can be installed in a few minutes and measures motor vibration, temperature and noise levels.

“The FitMachine is a magnetically attached activity tracker that continuously monitors machine health and predict failures before they happen,” Mr Parsons said.

“There are 2.6 billion electric motors in the world using 43 per cent of the planet’s electricity. If those motors and machines are not functioning efficiently, there is a measurable impact on industry and the environment.”

Mr Parsons was recently in Germany for discussions with a global manufacturing firm that is looking for a solution to monitor 10,000 machines across 72 factories.

Ignite Ideas is part of the Palaszczuk Government’s $420 million Advance Queensland initiative designed to supercharge the economy and create jobs through innovation.

Visit the Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas Fund webpage for more information on the program and its recipients.