Vention Inc., a Canadian startup that supplies manufacturers with customized automation equipment, has raised $110 million in late-stage funding.

The investment arm of Quebec’s government led the Series D round. It was joined by Nvidia Corp.’s NVentures and several other institutional backers.

Vention offers more than 3,000 hardware products that range from simple metal components to robotic arms. Customers can assemble those products into production lines using a drag-and-drop cloud service called MachineBuilder. For example, an automaker could design three conveyor belts that each include a robotic arm optimized for soldering tasks.

A built-in artificial intelligence suggests improvements to the equipment that MachineBuilder users design. If a conveyor belt is expected to process heavy car parts, the software might recommend ways of boosting its frame’s carrying capacity. A version control tool enables users to save each iteration of a system design and revert to an earlier blueprint in the event of errors.

After a company designs a production line, MachineBuilder automatically generates a cost estimate and a bill of materials. Vention says it can ship the hardware within days of an order. The equipment arrives with AI-generated assembly instructions for the client organization’s factory staff.

A company’s software teams can program its newly purchased automation equipment using an application called MachineLogic. It doubles as a simulation tool. An online retailer, for example, can run simulations to estimate the amount of time that it would take a robotic arm to prepare a certain type of parcel. That data enables engineers to refine the configuration of their company’s automation equipment.

Customers can run their machine control software on a computing module that Vention ships with its robots. MachineMotion, as the system is called, is powered by Nvidia’s Jetson system-on-chip series. A built-in modem enables engineers to remotely manage the appliance and issue over-the-air updates to the code it hosts.

MachineMotion also functions as a production line monitoring system. According to Vention, it can be integrated with factory floor cameras to collect footage of potential equipment failures. Engineers can stream that data to the software maker’s observability application, MachineAnalytics, which displays machine health and performance metrics. For example, it can highlight if one of a conveyor belt’s motors is not receiving a sufficient amount of power.

MachineBuilder’s Jetson chip enables it to run on-device AI software. Vention provides an automation application called AI Operator that enables robots to perform picking, the task of collecting and organizing items. For example, a robot could use AI Operator to pick up products from a large crate and place them in parcels that can be shipped to online shoppers.

Vention says more than 25,000 of its robots are deployed in over 4,000 facilities worldwide. According to BetaKit, the company’s annualized recurring revenue recently topped $100 million. It will use the proceeds from its funding round to enhance its AI capabilities and establish a bigger international presence. 

Image: Vention