Bit Stew Systems, a little-known startup that’s landed several major North American utility customers for its data integration and operations software platform, has raised $17.2 million in series B funding to expand into Europe, branch into the oil and gas industry, and add distributed energy resources to the grid edge systems it tracks.

The latest round was led by a potentially important new investor, GE Ventures, the investment arm of Industrial Internet giant General Electric Corp., with participation from existing investors Cisco Investments and Yaletown Venture Partners. The new funding brings Bit Stew’s total funding to $26 million, including a $5.3 million Series A round in late 2013 and a $3.5 million credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank in May 2014.

Bit Stew develops software-defined operations systems that are designed automate and optimize the management of Industrial Internet data. The company’s main offering is its Mix Core platform, which automates the data management process for Industrial Internet sensors and devices, removing much of the complexity involved in doing so. The software has been purpose-built for the oil, gas and utilities industries, and learns patterns in the data, which allows operators to detect anomalies through analytics. Over time it becomes smarter by storing what it learns and evoking this knowledge through sophisticated business rules.

Besides this, the company offers Mix Director, a solution powered by Mix Core’s data management capabilities that transforms data into actionable insights that drive new operating efficiencies, optimize asset reliability, minimize lost revenue and improve customer satisfaction

The involvement of GE Ventures in this latest round could be especially significant for the company, because it’s the investment arm of GE, one of the Industrial Internet’s biggest players. “The investment from GE is a very strategic one for Bit Stew, as we look beyond the markets we work in today, and begin to extend our scope to markets that GE serves,” said Franco Castaldini, Bit Stew’s vice president of marketing, to GreenTech Media.

Of these new markets, the most important one is the oil and gas industry. Bit Stew plans to begin with the expansion of its natural gas pipeline data collection software, something it already does with its existing partners in the utility industry. “This is around leak detection, and triaging the ‘alarm fatigue’ that utilities are experiencing,” Castaldini said. “Alarms are coming from multiple systems, and there’s no way to prioritize them.”

Bit Stew already offers its smart meter customers a way to identify the reasons for alarms being triggered, whether that’s because of a communications systems breakdown, power failure or an equipment failure, and the company believes its technology can do a similar job for the oil and gas industry.

Elsewhere, Bit Stew is also hoping to expand its operations into the European utilities market, particulary in France, Germany, Spain and the U.K. Castaldini told GreenTech Media the firm was looking for opportunities to help manage utilities’ government-mandated smart meter rollouts, while in the U.K. it wants to analyze grid and vegetation management data to help utilities predict and prevent power outages.

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