The Israeli start-up YOUTILIGENT has developed a system that allows suppliers of household appliances to add smart features that will enable better quality control and maintenance.
The start-up has recently completed a $ 1.5 million seed investment from the Cornerstone Foundation and the Israeli Innovation Authority.
YOUTILIGENT has created a product that will allow a wide variety of businesses to closely monitor their customers’ consumption habits in real-time.
This will enable businesses that provide services using coffee machines, water bars, ice cream freezers and refrigerators to know which product is consumed at any given moment, to what extent, and when it’s time to replenish the inventory, thus providing better service and maintenance.
The lack of live data regarding the use of appliances causes inefficiency on the part of service providers. They operate almost completely on a random basis, with data on the volume and nature of consumption arriving late, if at all, causing a wasteful use of resources.
The innovative product uses machine learning to map the unique characteristics of every machine, enabling vendors and service providers to change the way they are communicating with their appliances. The new product will allow providers of old systems to enjoy the efficient innovation that only new expensive high-tech machinery are usually capable of.
Avichai Blitzky, CEO and one of the founders of YOUTILIGENT, explains that the product does much more than only monitor if a machine is on or off at any given time.
“The plug monitors the appliance continually. Every action the machine does has a slightly different electrical signature, similar to a kind of ‘machine AKG’. That way we know at any given moment what kind of action the machine is performing, and predict exactly when it will need maintenance, refills, etc,” he explained.
The innovation may also have a significant environmental impact, saving up to 20% of the air pollution associated with maintenance. The fact that the solution is cheap and compatible is key for the products potential to becoming an industry-standard if the development is completed as planned.
The start-up is currently running as part of the ‘South Up’ incubator, which operates from the southern town of Near-Am, near the border with Gaza.
The company has so far partnered with companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, Mey-Eden and Ben and Jerry’s. The new funds will allow the company to develop the product further and work on new pilots with more companies in Europe and the US.
