Manufacturing analytics company Sight Machine Inc. said today it has raised $29.4 million in funding after seeing massive customer growth in the last year.

The Series C round was led by Korean venture capital firm LS Group, whose Chief Strategy Officer Yumi Lee will join Sight Machine’s board of directors. Existing investors Mercury Fund, Jump Capital, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and E.ON also participated in the round.

Sight Machine provides real-time data analytics for manufacturers that are increasingly adopting industrial “internet of things” technologies such as digital sensors on their factory floors. Manufacturing operations are rapidly becoming wellsprings of data that pump out useful information on everything from machine performance to quality control. That information can then be analyzed and put to use in order to inform decision-making by managers, but that can happen only if the right systems are in place to capture that data.

The problem for many manufacturers is thatthose systems just don’t exist. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last year, Sight Machine Chief Executive Officer Jon Sobel said an alarming number of manufacturers still rely on outdated technology such as Excel spreadsheets, thumb drives, white boards and such to track their manufacturing data. But those technologies aren’t very useful in trying to analyze streams of sensory data being produced in real-time, he said.

Sight Machine offers software that can connect to every sensor on the factory floor and funnel the data being pumped out by various machines into a visual web interface. There, managers can view the data via a range of charts and graphs to get a clearer picture of what’s happening and try to improve productivity and carry out predictive maintenance of machines.

The company’s platform currently integrates with a range of data sources and formats, including sensor-enabled robots, Ethernet cameras, and traditional serial connections, Modbus and TCP/IP connections. Its cloud-based approach and image processing capabilities for automated visual inspections and online storage of images are tied directly to product quality data.

Sight Machine said its platform is effective enough that its customer contract value has grown by 400% in the last year. Major customers include Nissan Motor Company, Heineken N.V. and Westrock Co.

Sobel said in a statement the company intends to use the funds to expand sales, develop more products and “accelerate its leadership.”

Image: Sight Machine