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Alchemist Accelerator<\/a> has raised $2 million from GE Digital<\/a> to start a new program for industrial IoT startups. Stanford lecturer Timothy Chou<\/a>, formerly President of Oracle On Demand, will chair Alchemist\u2019s new IIoT accelerator along with GE Digital\u2019s West Coast group.<\/p>\n In the past, enterprise hardware and software startups were seen as capital intensive, with the challenge of long sales cycles. That made them less appealing to early-stage investors. But VC\u2019s at every stage appear more interested in enterprise tech these days as sensors, wearables, robotics and autonomous vehicles\u00a0are transforming industrial sectors.<\/p>\n Alchemist Accelerator Managing Partner Ravi Belani <\/a>said, \u201cIndustrial applications and next gen internet in industry are exciting right now. Robots\u00a0and drones\u00a0get a lot of attention. But AI and machine learning advances are also making forecasting and automation possible in ways we never even imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n Participants in the new IIoT program at Alchemist will have access to special events, coaches focused exclusively on industrial internet businesses, help connecting with prospective customers and other resources. Most will work out of Alchemist\u2019s office space in Xerox PARC.<\/p>\n GE Digital Vice President and CFO Khozema Shipchandler<\/a>, who oversees the group\u2019s merger and acquisition activity, said his firm\u00a0intends to participate in follow-on investments in promising companies from the accelerator\u2019s new track, and may possibly acquire some companies or partner with others.\u00a0Last year, GE acquired<\/a> Alchemist alumni Wise.io, so there\u2019s precedent for serious deal making.<\/p>\n Shipchandler said,\u201dAs the industrial internet plays out it\u2019s not 100% clear which technologies will win. We\u2019re thinking about\u00a0AI, machine learning, data integration, drone tech, inspection technologies, things of that nature. From our vantage it\u2019s important to place a few different bets at the same time.\u00a0Working with an accelerator like Alchemist can give us a learning entry-point to see what is out there.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Featured Image: YASUYOSHI CHIBA\/Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunchIt\/~3\/cfd5rBJsx7Y\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alchemist Accelerator has raised $2 million from GE Digital to start a new program for industrial IoT startups. Stanford lecturer Timothy Chou, formerly President of Oracle On Demand, will chair <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-4407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enterprise-software","tag-enterprise"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t