GPMS closes Series A funding led by DiamondStream Partners
AI predictive maintenance company GPMS International has announced the close of a Series A financing round led by DiamondStream Partners. It did not release the volume of capital received.
GPMS will use the investment towards its key product Foresight MX, a remote monitoring and predictive maintenance system for rotorcraft. Data is collected from the aircraft and transferred automatically to a cloud-based browser.
The system was developed and field tested in collaboration with Duke Energy’s aviation department.
Andrew Swayze, head of Marketing and Strategy, GPMS, told Helicopter/VTOL Investor: “We track how any aircraft or machine is operating and how it is being operated. We look at machine health and tie it into failure prevention. We’re providing predictive maintenance capabilities.”
Brian Flynn, MD at DiamondStream Partners, said: “GPMS’s next generation hardware and software can provide tremendous benefits to safety, reliability, and operations in the current rotorcraft market.”
Swayze said the company’s founders brought their experience in early health monitoring systems from Goodrich Aerospace.
Health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS) have traditionally been heavy equipment – to the tune of 130lbs, according to Swayze. GPMS says the Foresight MX system offers a “dramatic reduction in weight, with an STC weight and balance on the AS350 of 5.7 lbs.”
GPMS’s Foresight MX is currently certified on the Bell 407gx/gxp/gxi and the AS350. In the coming year they plan certifications on the Bell 212/412, MD530, Bell 429, and Airbus H135.
Health and Usage Monitoring Systems are frequently used in the oil and gas sector. But Swayze thinks the demand is expanding to any missions concerning passengers, with the safety of these missions of utmost importance.
“There is an operations benefit, a safety benefit, but there’s a benefit financially, in terms of maintenance,” he said.
Through research with its pilot customer, Duke Aviation, GPMS was able to find that its Foresight MX saved more than $45,000 per aircraft through “increased availability, faster and more efficient maintenance, and protected asset value”.
eVTOL/UAS applications
Flynn said the technology underpinning Foresight MX has tremendous potential in other markets. These could be in the eVTOL/UAS segment. GPMS recently signed an agreement with eVTOL maker BETA Technologies and is in discussion with other market leaders.
Swayze said DiamondStream Partners was well-suited as a GPMS backer, as the company has “a foothold in both traditional aviation side and on the VTOL side”.
DiamondStream Partners was joined in the financing by several other industry insiders and investors. The company’s current portfolio comprises Portside, Elroy Air and Stellar.
Jed Kalkstein GPMS’s president, said: “This funding will help us accelerate our progress in the rotorcraft market and expand to adjacent industries.”
The company offers Foresight both directly to operators and through OEM agreements with Bell Flight and others that are currently in stealth mode.
“We’ve seen how the system can be quickly adapted for ground vehicles, heavy equipment, and other machines that have a high cost and consequence of downtime and where their complexity and multitude of operating modes makes ‘big data’ modeling ineffective,” added Flynn, who will be joining GPMS’ Board of Directors.
GPMS estimates 80% of the rotorcraft currently flying do not have HUMS technology on board.
“We can’t envision a future in which this kind of technology isn’t best practice,” said Swayze.
