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The founders of Australian lubrication management system startup GreaseBoss hope to follow in the footsteps of some of the world's most successful companies after being accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator program.
The startup, co-founded by Steve Barnett (pictured left), Peter Condoleon (pictured centre) and Tim Hall (pictured right), was the only Australian company to be accepted into the program this year from 17,000 global applications.
The Silicon Valley-based program is highly regarded and is partly responsible for honing now-global giants including Airbnb, Doordash, Dropbox, Stripe and Twitch.
The news comes as GreaseBoss, a simple lubrication management system that prevents equipment failure and reduces maintenance costs for machinery owners, comes close to completing a seed financing round and conducts its global sales launch.
The company also recently signed its first major contract with mining giant Glencore to provide intelligent grease application hardware and cloud tracking technology beginning with the Oaky Creek North site.
"Six months ago a group of us came together with the idea of finding a way to better track and trace the greasing that can hold up production at major industrial operations," co-founder and CEO Steve Barnett said.
"For Greaseboss to be the only Aussie start-up selected is a huge win for us and we could not be more excited.
"To be selected for Y Combinator's prestigious program gives us an entry point to the US market and allows us to accelerate our seed funding round."
Investors tapping into the seed funding round, including Trent Bagnall's The Melt and Brent Watts' 77 Partners, are helping build the company that hopes to one day enable industrial sites to be 100 per cent productive, environmentally friendly, and safe for all workers.
"Enabling maintenance teams to keep heavy machinery lubricated and moving at all times helps a myriad of operations, from mining and material processing to property and construction to utilities and agriculture," 77 Partners founder and managing partner Watts said.
"As an investor in high growth ventures, we look for founders and solutions that can scale to markets around the world to create real value for all, and GreaseBoss is uniquely positioned to do just that as it ushers in a new era in smart industry."
The startup has also been awarded a $100,000 Queensland government grant recently to launch the GreaseBoss product across Australia.
Barnett said that while the industry is grappling with inconsistent maintenance, technology is now helping to create previously unobtainable efficiencies.
"It is part of human nature to make mistakes, to miss a grease nipple or two on a maintenance round or to improperly apply grease in the haste to get the round done and get out of the heat, rain or snow," he said.
"We put together an effective solution within just a few months and today are launching GreaseBoss technology into the hands of equipment maintenance teams around the world to enable safer, smarter and more productive industrial operations."
Photo credit: Will Cilento
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