How Cognecto makes mining and logistics work easy with its IoT and sensor solutions – YourStory

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YSTV
Thursday January 23, 2025 , 6 min Read
Asset and task monitoring can become tedious for industries like mining, logistics and transportation that rely on heavy machinery. Inefficient resource allocation, limited real-time visibility, and maintenance delays can impact their efficiency and profitability.

Bengaluru-based Cognecto helps boost efficiency and streamline operations for these industries by leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT), real-time analytics, and sensor technology to offer companies tailored flexible SaaS solutions.

In 2020, when Anshul Saxena, Divyani Singh, and Bhanu Shekhar—co-founders of Cognecto—started building the product, they realised that most products already available in the market connect man, machine, or material.

“Any operational process uses these three things to get their work done. We concluded that to get the full insights of what is happening in an operation site, we need to connect all those three,” says Saxena, CTO of Cognecto.

The startup created its proprietary algorithms in data sciences, helping cut costs, as the alternative—very high-quality hard sensors—were expensive.
Catering to the mining, construction, logistics, and transportation sectors, Cognecto allows clients to digitise their inventories to track assets and their status, including servicing or repairs.

With its real-time asset tracking, Cognecto provides companies with detailed analytics for fleet management, helping them spot trends and make informed decisions. Its asset surveillance feature ensures security and visibility, and operators can allocate equipment via the same portal.

The business-to-business (B2B) startup also helps companies track employee attendance digitally to improve workforce management.
The startup has installed its sensors in vehicles that help get data directly when they move. “First, we need to get data ingested to be analysed, and it can be done in two ways—through sensors, which we put in heavy equipment or directly integrating to the factory,” explains Saxena.

He continues, “By installing Cognecto’s software at the factory, we eliminate the need for hardware retrofitting at later stages of the vehicle’s lifecycle. It ensures the technology is ready to use as soon as the asset is deployed, saving time and resources.”

Saxena adds that one way to connect is through Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). “If that is impossible, we connect it through our device and get data ingested to our platform,” he adds.

Cognecto also has a mobile app and vision cameras that help ingest the data, followed by the company analysing the data with the help of its proprietary algorithms—IoT-based road quality monitoring and analysis system and Method for Payload Measurement of Trucks.

Citing the example of road construction, Saxena explains, “Usually, people give results like, ‘today the roller worked for 6 hours’, because they have integrated a sensor into the roller, and they can see how many hours the roller has worked. However, if you are sitting in a project management control room, you are more interested in how much work output the roller has done.”

According to the CTO, the product emphasises the quality of work rather than the quantity of work. The asset-centric data, which is how many hours the roller has run, converts to business-centric data, which is how much work the roller has done.

Cognecto integrates its solution with clients’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for fuel monitoring and management, enabling automated fuel management—from purchase to application—while providing real-time insights into fuel transactions, storage, and usage.

In fact, the startup helps detect any irregular patterns of fuel consumption to prevent fuel theft, as well as evaluates terrains, elevations, and environmental factors and recommends optimal routes to minimise fuel consumption.

According to the co-founder, Cognecto tracks over 15,000 km of road on its platform in partnership with the Ministry of Rural Development under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

Divyani Singh, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Cognecto, explains, “They wanted someone to help them with an evidence-based quality monitoring system so that all the roads getting constructed in rural India are monitored and tracked. That’s where we developed our patented proprietary algorithm to manage that with roller passes.”

“We do it through data science algorithms and could achieve it at one-tenth of the price. That’s why currently in India, we are present in all the border states, all from northeast and Ladakh to Kerala,” Saxena adds.

Cognecto sees Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) as a customer. The company also has OEM partnerships with BEML and Tata, who are also a part of the POC (proof of concept) programme.

Since its product launch in December 2022, the startup has been catering to 17 clients, including Vedanta, Hindalco, Aditya Birla Group, Tyson Group, Fura Gems, and Aluminium of Greece.
Saxena says Cognecto’s go-to-market strategy is horizontal growth. For instance, while it currently caters to two sites of Hindalco, it aims to grow and manage all of Hindalco’s 22 sites.

Similarly, its work with PMGSY in Kerala has expanded to Ladakh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, and Tripura, and it plans to reach all states.

In FY24, the company generated Rs 2.2 crore in revenue, with highway projects accounting for 70% and mining for the remaining 30%. It expects to earn Rs 12 crore in FY25.

“We are present in Fura Australia, the largest emerald mine in the world, and we have a good pedigree there,” the CTO says, adding that Cognecto also plans to expand its services to Western Australia and Africa.

It sees UK-based MachineMax (acquired by Shell) and Wenco (acquired by Hitachi) as its competitors.

In May 2023, Cognecto raised Rs 4 crore in seed funding from Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). Saxena says the company is in discussion with investors to raise Rs 40 crore.

At present, it is working on Cognecto ID to transform how machines are identified, tracked, and utilised. “Think of it as an Aadhaar-like unique identification system, but for heavy equipment,” Saxena says.

He explains, “Currently, there’s no easy way to know if a rented machine is reliable, fuel-efficient, or properly maintained. Often, subpar equipment ends up being used, leading to higher operational costs, downtime, and frustration.”

“This is where Cognecto ID steps in, where every machine gets a unique identifier that consolidates its key information into one easily accessible system,” he adds.

Any machine owner, miner, or operator can scan the Cognecto ID and receive all the critical details about the machine—its condition, whether pre-start checks were done properly, fuel efficiency, mileage, and overall performance history.

In the next five years, the company sees itself reaching an order book of Rs 300-350 crore and getting acquired or going for an IPO.
 
Cognecto was part of YourStory’s Tech30 cohort of most promising startups, unveiled at TechSparks Bengaluru 2024.
Edited by Suman Singh
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