Machinery Partner - disrupting the global heavy equipment industry

by Startacus Admin

Machinery Partner is a startup that's created an innovative solution for the procurement and financing of heavy equipment and machinery for small businesses

The current model for small businesses buying or leasing heavy equipment, such as rock crushers, breakers, and conveyors is broken. It’s stacked against these smaller businesses, making things harder, more expensive, and less efficient for them, which in turn makes it harder for them to grow their business and compete with the bigger, more established ones. 

What this stagnant, $200 billion heavy equipment market needs is disruption, perhaps by, say, a unique, direct-to-customer model for financing and service built by an Irish born and US-based startup.

It just so happens that Ireland-founded and Boston-based startup Machinery Partner has built a platform for small businesses that eliminates dealers and other middlemen, passing on big savings. Machinery Partner rates risk not by their credit score or asset base of the applicant, but according to the business and its potential, so small and new businesses can now obtain the expensive equipment that is vital to actually running their business. 

The startup’s model covers procurement, financing, and service. Rather than going physically to a dealer to find equipment they need, or settling for similar equipment that the dealer sells, Machinery Partner’s direct-to-customer means a much wider offering of equipment, as well as consultation with experts, if necessary, to recommend the right equipment for the job. With finance, a more holistic approach looks at the potential of the business, competitive threats, experience of the owner, and depreciation value of the equipment to make smarter decisions and save their customers money on loan amounts.

 To keep the machinery in peak condition, Machinery Partner is developing a data dashboard that collects data from sensors and on-board telematics to derive critical insights about performance, maintenance, and alerts, allowing them to service machinery correctly and at the right times.

In 2020, Machinery Partner was one of 20 teams to take their places at the Ormeau Baths in Belfast for the Propel 2020 Pre-Accelerator. From there, the startup moved to Boston to be part of the Techstars accelerator programme, where Techstars’ Managing Director in Boston, Clement Cazalot, left to invest and join Machinery Partner as co-founder and COO. This August, the startup announced that it had raised $4.5 in a Seed round led by One Way Ventures and Euclid Ventures, with participation from PJC and Techstars Ventures. This will be used to further boost sales and tech development.

Again, this is a $200 billion industry that has seen little in the way of disruption, so we are looking forward to seeing where disruption gets it and Machinery Partner.

 

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• #innovation

Published on: 3rd September 2021