An Australian technology business is a step closer to revolutionising mining operations worldwide, having secured a strategic investment from Jolimont Global Mining Systems (Jolimont), which will accelerate its growth in Australia and internationally.
Founded by Alex Retzlaff and Paul Moynagh six years ago, Commit Works has pioneered a suite of innovations that help operations coordinate and manage frontline work. The company makes frontline work management, short interval control and visual management software that are delivering significant productivity and safety results for 60% of the world’s largest miners.
Today the company announced it had secured funding from Jolimont Capital, a private equity group funded by Resource Capital Fund (RCF) that invests in high-growth mining equipment, technology and services (METS) companies.
Commit Works CEO Paul Moynagh said the investment would enable Commit Works to expand their global reach. “We are thrilled to receive this significant backing from Jolimont, the world’s best mining technology venture capital fund – it will greatly accelerate our growth in Australia, the Americas, Europe and Africa. Our products reliably deliver rapid and significant improvements to operations (in many cases more than 30% increase in production results) – we look forward to sharing our software and these kinds of results globally,” Mr Moynagh said.
“At Commit Works we make software that gets everyone on site working together and pulling in the same direction. Fewzion creates a fully integrated frontline shift plan by bringing together mine planning, maintenance, services and ERP data to ensure all work on site is properly coordinated. Shift plans are instantly available to frontline teams through our app and large touchscreens to ensure everyone is on the same page. Supervisors and crew can perform short interval control throughout the shift, write their shift reports and contribute to daily review meetings all in the same system. This kind of integrated thinking and coordination has helped many mining operations quickly produce large, sustainable production and safety improvements,” Mr Moynagh said.
Commit Works welcomes Lyle Bruce, partner at Jolimont and former Managing Director at GroundProbeto its board, where he’ll join fellow investorAndy Greig – former president of Bechtel’s Mining & Metals Global Business and founder of Brisbane startup incubator, ACAC Innovation. Mr Bruce said Jolimont invests in high growth mining technology companies. “A focus for us is innovative technology and a customer-oriented team,” Mr Bruce said. “Australia leads the world in mining innovation and Commit Works is another example of an emerging Australian company bringing world’s best technology to global mining operations. Jolimont is proud to support the Commit Works team.”
Michael Sterry, Investment Manager at Jolimont, said precise shift planning was a gap in the market that Commit Works addresses. “The people that make a difference to productivity and safety are closest to operations and production. They want to know how they are performing shift-by-shift. You can’t get closer than real-time performance tracking at the coalface,” he said.
Great news for the METS sector
As Australian METS businesses began emerging from the recent downturn, experts agreed that three key ideas were vital to mining’s future: collaboration, innovation and technology.
- Collaboration refers to better cooperation in the workforce to improve efficiency and safety, as well as collaboration across and outside the sector, with the resources industry building relationships with software developers, technical specialists, strategic thinkers and others.
- Innovation was a necessity during the downturn as businesses fought to survive, and now it’s entrenched in the status quo. The world is changing fast, driven by rapid technological advances and volatile markets; “innovation” is the shorthand for all of the ways in which companies can stay relevant and competitive.
- Technology is creating improvements in equipment capabilities, workforce management, safety and efficiency, as companies invest in mobile technology, cloud computing, automation, real-time reporting and big data.
Commit Works is operating at the nexus of these priorities, delivering software solutions that grow with the industry and facilitate better collaboration on mining operations. Jolimont’s investment in these solutions represents a win not only for Commit Works but for the future of the METS sector.
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