About

Oliveex is a VC-backed Greek startup that provides an Industrial IoT platform for monitoring, data analytics & digital traceability. The platform uses in-line, wireless & Plug-N-Play sensors to optimize fermented food and beverages quality control. Oliveex has performed several pilot installations and Proof-of-Concepts in Greece, some of them with key players of the Food & Beverages industry like Athenian Brewery, the largest beer producer in Greece and part of HEINEKEN Group. We are currently focusing on the alcoholic fermentation market (beer, wine, spirits, etc.) and address this as the ideal initial target market since they are ready to adopt high-end technological solutions. Breweries and wineries are already familiar with the usage of sensors to perform their daily quality control however without using internet-connected sensors and without exploiting the collected data, either to improve precision or to improve digital traceability. In conclusion we are initially targeting the alcoholic fermentation market however our goal is to expand our scope to fermented foods in general (dairy, plant-based, etc).

Solution & Product

Our IIoT platform offers the needed digital transformation and introduces remote quality control, using IoT devices that are 24/7 attached and collecting data. Through our platform, producers will be able to improve precision by using data, while also replacing manual quality control processes (e.g. sampling and lab analysis) to cut costs. We provide real-time analysis by monitoring the environmental and chemical state of the product and also the different gas concentrations (CO2, O2) in the tank’s exhaust. However, we are not providing standalone sensors for specific metrics but an all-in-one integrated platform that will combine different metrics to export complex chemical data and use them for actionable, real-time, predictive analytics. Data is used both to strengthen traceability with digital identity for each batch that includes information from all stages (production, fermentation, maturation & storage) and also for evaluation of the production methods and in used ingredients.

Innovation & Scalability

Nowadays, fermentation and maturation processes are mainly based on schedules rather than data, due to a lack of field-specific technology solutions. Addressing these difficulties and knowing that the only way to maximize precision is to use cutting-edge technologies we developed Oliveex’s IoT-enabled solution. Our attractiveness or our competitive advantage over the existing solutions is that Oliveex’s 360° solutions offer the utilization of Internet-of-Things architecture for remotely monitoring production data and producing actionable and predictive analytics. Also, with the exploitation of data through machine learning algorithms it is possible to evaluate production methods and optimize them. Our core features are described below:
A) Simplify the quality control process. Using a device that is 24/7 attached to the storage tanks, collecting product data the customer can monitor the product status without the need of taking samples and analyzing them.
B) Real-time alerting, minimizing sampling errors. With periodic data collections at least 6-times a day and using high precision sensing units we minimize wrong readings about the product chemical state.
C) AI integration and data exploitation. Using data analytics and reports, the fermentation process can be modeled, split into stages that later can be identified as the critical stages, the stages with the most product spoilage, and those that can get optimized by controlling their storage conditions.

Traction & achievements

Oliveex has performed several pilot installations and Proof-of-Concepts in Greece, some of them with key players of the Food & Beverages industry like Athenian Brewery, the largest beer producer in Greece and part of HEINEKEN Group. Interest was also expressed from fermentation tank constructors both to integrate our solution to their upcoming tanks (to improve innovativeness), and also to retrofit in the already installed. Sales process has just started, but we already have received positive feedback with 50+ active leads and one distributor (annual capacity of 500 tanks) contract being official soon (letter-of-support provided). Well-known university labs that work closely with industries in R&D (letter-of-support provided) have also expressed interest that can increase connections. Since Oliveex have recently closed its pre-seed funding round and currently have the financial resources for an optimal sales expansion we are expecting significant growth in the following months.

Team & Why Us

We all studied at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Thessaly. We know each other for more than seven years and during this period we have participated in a lot of projects, some of them in IoT. Active advisors currently are university professors that help us with product development but also people from the fermented foods market that we collaborated with during pilots. They are helping us with their expertise and also providing us the ability to have an active testbench during development.
However, the biggest achieved milestone in our opinion is our product development roadmap by now. Starting in 2018 and in less than a year we achieve to deploy a fully-functional prototype, test it in industrial conditions and get in touch with key industries of the fermented food market receiving also precious feedback that helps us grow and adapt to the current market needs. In the second year of development (2019), we deploy our solutions in the biggest market of fermented foods, dairy products, and run a round of pilot installations with promising results. After two years of continuous development and pilots, working with limited financial resources we achieved to convert our beta testers to initial clients and start our scope expansion to beer, wine and, hydroponics. We address our team as a highly-skilled technological team, focused on our goals and capable of developing and selling high-end Industrial IoT solutions.

Funding Needs

Currently, Oliveex's funding needs have been covered. We have just raised a pre-seed round led by TECS Capital.
The next expected fundraising period will start on Q3 2022.