It's just business: Manufacturing moves from Honeywell, Bright Machines, Wilya, and more
As manufacturers strive to optimize and improve profitability, they often use various business strategies to stay competitive. These actions include mergers, acquisitions, promotions, layoffs, funding, and much more. Below are just a few of the companies that are making moves and making headlines in the industrial sector.
Acquisition: Honeywell has oficially announced the acquisition of CAES Systems Holdings LLC. Honeywell paid $1.9 billion to purchase CAES from Advent International, which represents 14x estimated 2024 EBITDA on a tax-adjusted basis. In a recent quote, Vimal Kapur, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell, said, “This acquisition further positions Honeywell at the forefront of the defense industry’s most dynamic sectors and sets the tempo for continued growth across our aerospace business. With the integration of CAES’ solutions and capabilities, we will fortify our existing defense offerings, while also expanding our capabilities in pivotal areas like RF, radar and sensing technologies, to ensure a market-leading position in areas that are critical for global security.”
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Capital: Wilya has closed a $4 million round of seed funding that was led by Ironspring Ventures. Wilya, which is a B2B SaaS company that specializes in HR functions for the manufacturing industry, also received investments from Schematic Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures, Iron Prairie Ventures, Motivate Ventures, and 25Madison. In a recent quote, Rahil Siddiqui, Founder and CEO of Wilya, said, "We are taking on the #1 issue for manufacturers through a novel technology solution, informed by our backgrounds in HR and tech. Wilya offers a unique combination of integrated tools to introduce and manage closed pools of skilled, frontline industrial workers, and we are eager to expand on our early successes with this fresh capital and exciting new partners.”
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Acquisition: JENNMAR has announced the acquisition of the assets of Dumotech Industrial Products. Dumotech, a Canadian company, is best known for manufacturing products and hardware for the hardrock mining industry, while JENNMAR specializes in infrastructure products and services for the civil, solar, mining, and construction industries. In a recent quote, David Hurd, Vice President of International Sales and Managing Director of JENNMAR Canada, said, "The addition of Dumotech to our Canadian operations firmly plants our footprint in Quebec and gives us even greater proximity to our expanding customer base in the region. We look forward to further bolstering the JENNMAR Canada team with the addition of Dumotech." Learn more
Capital: Bright Machines has received $126 million in a Series C round of funding. The company, which specializes in intelligent, software-defined manufacturing, received investments from BlackRock, as well as NVIDIA, Microsoft, Eclipse, Jabil and Shinhan Securities. According to the company, the money will be used to launch new products, expand its software stack, and improve relationships with its partners. In a recent quote, Lior Susan, CEO and Executive Chairman at Bright Machines, said, “By collaborating with technology leaders such as NVIDIA and Microsoft, Bright Machines can deliver flexible, integrated, and intelligent manufacturing solutions to our customers, starting with Design for Automated Assembly (DFAA) and continuing – with unprecedented visibility – through every step of the process, right through to the circularity of recycling. As optimized manufacturing systems are faster, more resilient, and more efficient than their manual counterparts, our customers are more competitive in terms of cost, their products’ time-to-market, and customer delight.”
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Acquisition: MSC Industrial Supply Co., which focuses on metalworking and MRO supplies, has officially acquired two companies, ApTex, Inc. and Premier Tool Grinding, Inc. ApTex is known for cutting tools, abrasives, metalworking fluids, and workholding systems and components, while Premier Tool Grinding engineers and produces carbide cutting tools. In a recent quote, MSC President and CEO Erik Gershwind said, "We are thrilled to welcome ApTex and Premier Tool Grinding into the MSC family. ApTex will strengthen our position to gain share in the surrounding Wisconsin area by combining ApTex's deep technical expertise with MSC's best-in-class metalworking offering. Additionally, Premier Tool Grinding will bolster MSC's specialty tooling and regrinding service offering that was recently enhanced through the acquisition of Tru-Edge and expands our reach to western parts of the U.S."
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