Brisbane-based mining tech firm Plotlogic raises $41.6m in funding round

Brisbane entrepreneur Andrew Job has attracted the attention of global venture capitalists, raising $41m in funding for his mining tech firm.

Cashed up US and Australian venture capital backed by serious money have led a $US28m ($A41.6m) punt on the future of Brisbane-based deep-tech mining company Plotlogic.

Galvanize Climate Solutions, the climate-focused global investment firm founded by billionaire Tom Steyer and Katie Hall, and SE Ventures, the investing firm backed by French energy and automation giant Schneider Electric, co-led the Series B funding round.

What they’re excited about is Plotlogic’s proprietary OreSense technology that uses a combination of advanced imaging and artificial intelligence to locate ore bodies in a much more accurate way than traditional mining methods.

This enables mines to operate far more efficiently with less wastage and environmental impact.

Plotlogic founder and chief executive Dr Andrew Job is confident the company will see escalation in adoption of OreSense driven by mounting pressure on the mining sector for more substantial environment practices.

“Recycling alone can only meet a fraction of the demand for essential commodities making continued mining essential. And sustainability in mining can be achieved through the increased adoption of advanced technologies like ours,” says Job who founded the company in 2018 while he was doing his PhD at the University of Queensland.

“Discovering new deposits is a challenging task and the development of mines can take up to 17 years, pushing us well into the 2030s before we see any kind of transformation in the supply of minerals required for a net-zero future.”

Existing investors Innovation Endeavors, DCVC, Bentley iTwin Ventures and GRIDS Capital also supported the raise, doubling down on their Series A investments.

Main Sequence, the Australian deep-tech VC firm backed by the CSIRO and Australian government, also participated via its newly launched Main Sequence Three fund.

Plotlogic chief executive Andrew Job.

Stay tuned

How’s this for timing. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Energy Regulator annual conference will held this Thursday and Friday in Brisbane.

We hear all the head honchos will be in town for the event at the W Hotel.

Perhaps there will be some last minute lobbying by Queensland’s biggest company? The ACCC’s review of ANZ’s bid to acquire Suncorp bank was recently extended to Friday. The regulator has not confirmed when it will announce its decision, only that it’s in August. Stay tuned!

Going global

Global management giant Bain & Company has acquired Brisbane-based Max Kelsen’s consulting and managed services divisions, a provider of artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions.

Founded in 2015, Max Kelsen has worked with Australian and global companies to build and deploy ML (machine leaning for those not in the know) solutions including real-time prediction, forecasting, computer vision, industrial control optimisation, robotics and more.

The company has served a wide range of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, and has partnered with market-leading cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.

Max Kelsen co-founder and chief executive Nicholas Therkelsen-Terry says they were excited to join Bain at a time when businesses were starting to navigate the disruptions brought on by generative AI.

“In a rapidly evolving business climate, companies that understand how to use these tools to their advantage will come out on top,” he says.

“By joining Bain, we are thrilled to be working with an even larger pool of global clients and supporting Bain to strengthen their global ML capabilities.”

Max Kelsen also operates a products division (SAVI Surgical and PROPeL Health AI) and a

research division, which are not part of the acquisition by Bain.

Max Kelsen co-founder and chief executive Nicholas Therkelsen-Terry.