Augmen­ted Reality in the Phar­maceu­ti­cal Industry:

Lands­hut / Munich-Grün­wald — Bayern Kapi­tal invests in Goodly Inno­va­tions as part of a Series A finan­cing round. Toge­ther with BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft and two busi­ness angels, Bayern Kapi­tal invests a seven-digit amount. Foun­ded at the end of 2016, the start-up from Munich-Grün­wald has deve­lo­ped an augmen­ted reality (AR) system that signi­fi­cantly impro­ves effi­ci­ency in produc­tion in the phar­maceu­ti­cal and biotech indus­tries, as well as enab­ling considera­ble cost savings. Goodly Inno­va­tions plans to use the Series A round funding to further deve­lop its product and expand commercialization.

Goodly Inno­va­tions’ augmen­ted reality system, called Opti­worX, is used in the phar­maceu­ti­cal and biotech indus­tries for produc­tion proces­ses that are down­stream of active ingre­di­ent manu­fac­tu­ring. Here, compa­nies face the chall­enge that opera­ting equip­ment — for exam­ple, in the pack­a­ging of active ingre­di­ents — often has to be taken out of service due to main­ten­ance or retro­fit­ting. As a result, produc­tion is stop­ped. Depen­ding on the comple­xity of a machine, these down­ti­mes amount to up to 50 percent and cause considera­ble costs. The Goodly solu­tion is based on mature tech­no­lo­gies and is alre­ady successfully used by seve­ral inter­na­tio­nal phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies. Here, it ensu­res grea­ter effi­ci­ency and faster problem solving by visually guiding machine users through the chan­geo­ver or main­ten­ance process using augmen­ted reality glas­ses. Any number of people can colla­bo­rate on any number of end devices. To date, Opti­worX is the only system to offer this multi-user, multi-device colla­bo­ra­tion for large indus­trial manu­fac­tu­ring and pack­a­ging faci­li­ties. The plat­form is desi­gned as a modu­lar, vendor-inde­pen­dent system. It enables fast, custo­mi­zed setup and inte­gra­tion into virtually any produc­tion environment.

Dr. Georg Ried, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal, says: “Goodly Inno­va­tions has deve­lo­ped a product that uses augmen­ted reality to solve a funda­men­tal problem in the phar­maceu­ti­cal and biotech indus­tries. The tech­no­logy works relia­bly — an important point in a regu­la­ted envi­ron­ment. Combi­ned with the expe­ri­ence of the foun­ding team, these are good prere­qui­si­tes for estab­li­shing the system as a stan­dard in a large market.”

Robert Hoff­meis­ter, Co-Foun­der and CEO of Goodly Inno­va­tions, states: “Thanks to the finan­cing round, we can acce­le­rate the further expan­sion of Opti­worX for the biopharma sector, both with addi­tio­nal product features and with grea­ter inter­na­tio­nal presence. We last saw produc­ti­vity leaps and quality impro­ve­ments on this scale in the auto­mo­tive indus­try 30 years ago. With Opti­worX, we are helping employees to unlock up to 50 percent produc­ti­vity reser­ves through the use of state-of-the-art and intui­tive technology.”

Alex­an­der Ullmann, Invest­ment Mana­ger at BayBG, says: “With Opti­worX, Goodly opti­mi­zes produc­tion proces­ses and mini­mi­zes plan­ned and unplan­ned plant down­time and chan­geo­ver times. We were parti­cu­larly convin­ced by the outstan­ding unique selling point of the Goodly solu­tion. It is the only AR system that enables multi-member teams to work on a task simul­ta­neously and synchro­no­usly in real time.”

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, was foun­ded in 1995 as a wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern on the initia­tive of the Bava­rian state govern­ment. As the venture capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria, Bayern Kapi­tal provi­des equity capi­tal to the foun­ders of inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies and young, inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies in Bava­ria. Bayern Kapi­tal curr­ently mana­ges eleven invest­ment funds with an invest­ment volume of around 325 million euros. To date, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted around 300 million euros of venture capi­tal in 270 inno­va­tive tech­no­logy-orien­ted compa­nies from a wide range of sectors, inclu­ding life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 7,500 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. www.bayernkapital.de

About Goodly Inno­va­tions GmbH
Goodly Inno­va­tions GmbH is a leading provi­der of augmen­ted reality solu­ti­ons for indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. The Opti­worX product is the only multi-user team manage­ment solu­tion that uses AR. Opti­worX was desi­gned as a modu­lar, vendor-inde­pen­dent system and allows a fast and indi­vi­dual setup in almost any produc­tion envi­ron­ment, as a stand-alone system or inte­gra­ted, e.g. into exis­ting MES systems for the crea­tion of Elec­tro­nic Batch Records.
www.goodly-innovations.com

About BayBG
With an inves­ted volume of more than 300 million euros, BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH is one of the largest venture capi­tal and equity capi­tal provi­ders for start-ups and medium-sized compa­nies. With its venture capi­tal and equity invest­ments, BayBG faci­li­ta­tes the imple­men­ta­tion of inno­va­tion and growth projects, the regu­la­tion of corpo­rate succes­sion, restruc­tu­rings, or the opti­miza­tion of the capi­tal structure.
www.baybg.de