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Success Stories
EIC Survive 2024 EIC Survive&&Thrive Thrive 2024
JulyJuly 2024 2024
Story type #technology (main category) #environmental sustainability
Pix Force
Benefits
Paving a new, more prosperous path with its proprietary AI solutions
▸ Revenue record in 2023. ▸ Contract wins with major organisations as Shell, Ocyan and Equinor.
Daniel Rodrigues Moura
Renato Gomes
Key findings
Founder & CEO
Founder & President
For industry ▸ Always develop and design solutions alongside with your clients, they are the best source of insights on how you can enhance your products and services. ▸ Embracer technology-driven solutions for enhanced efficiency and safety.
How is Pix Force thriving? Pix Force has carved out a unique position in the energy sector by using its proprietary AI-powered software to analyse videos and photos and enable enhanced decision-making in an industry 4.0 context. From worker safety alerts and automatic corrosion assessment to oil spill detection, the company has transformed itself into a multi-million-dollar startup supporting several Fortune 500 companies in the space of just eight years. The challenge - Founded in 2016, Pix Force is a revolutionary technology business. Utilising artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies, the company’s overarching goal is to streamline operations, reduce risks, and increase productivity for its clients through automated image and video analysis. With much of its business spanning conventional power (60%) and oil and gas (30%), Pix Force has quickly established itself as a disruptive force in the energy market, amassing a workforce of more than 110 specialist employees in the space of just eight years; however, the journey that has brought it to where it is today has not been free of challenges. Its early years were propelled, to a large extent, by work with the major pulp and paper producer Suzano, deploying its drone technology for field mapping and crop analysis. However, following Suzano’s merger with another organisation, Pix Force was no longer able to rely on the pulp producer’s business, which left the company in a difficult situation and in need of replacing one of its main revenue streams. What followed marked a true survive and thrive moment for the business. Without being able to quickly adapt and demonstrate its value to alternative prospects, the company’s future would almost certainly have been in doubt. The solution - As part of its efforts to find new revenue streams, the company participated in and won a prestigious startup challenge organised by Shell. This was a true watershed moment for Pix Force, as it not only led to the development of an innovative AI solution for remote mapping, but also prevented layoffs and revitalised the business.
Specifically, the Shell startup challenge focused on ESG and led Pix Force’s Co-Founders Daniel Moura and Renato Gomes to conduct a case study on “produced water” - a key area of focus for certain Brazilian governmental entities. Critically, any operator found to have negatively impacted the environment due to a lack of proper treatment or disposal of produced water would be subject to considerable fines. However, at that time, there was a lack of adequate tools to effectively analyse and track these processes. Moura and Gomes identified this gap and proposed the use of remote mapping powered by AI to assist companies in making their processes safer, more efficient and compliant with the stringent regulations. This successful result not only opened doors in the energy sector, but also led to the creation of one of the company’s main products - Pix Safety – an AI-driven monitoring system for workplace safety. Notably, the company’s software can identify whether individuals are correctly using their PPE equipment during onshore and offshore operations and identify dangerous situations. Further, Pix Safety is fully customisable and can be easily tailored to any client’s specific needs. Ultimately it is an AI solution that works 24 hours a day to prevent accidents and save lives. Pix Force’s success stories have steered the company onto a new prosperous path and such accolades are corroborated by its financial results, which increased almost 10-fold from2019, to 2023. Owing to its ongoing focus on innovation, collaboration and client engagement, the company has successfully emerged as a leader in Brazil’s technology sector. With a proven track record in supporting major organisations such as Shell, Ocyan and Equinor, it is now poised for international expansion and continued growth in 2024.
For government ▸ Support for international trade initiatives and market expansion.
Pix Force at a glance: Key products and services: software development. Main industries served: ▸ Conventional power – 60% ▸ Oil and gas – 30% ▸ Others (non-energy): mining: 10% Headquarters: Porto Alegre, Brazil Year established: 2016 Number of employees: 110 Revenue: £1.75m