Poka raises $25M in funding for connected factory worker platform

Poka, a Montreal-based developer of a connected worker platform built specifically for manufacturers, has raised $25 million in Series B financing.

40 North Ventures led the investment with participation from McRock Capital and existing investors SE Ventures, CDPQ, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and Leclerc. This round brings the company’s total funding to more than $45 million.

Poka helps address the skills gap and increased operational complexity by giving factory workers the ability to learn continuously and solve problems more autonomously at the point of need.

““Connected workers are empowered workers,” says Alexandre Leclerc, CEO and co-founder of Poka. “Our goal is to help our manufacturing clients turn every production problem into an opportunity to build collective knowledge, learn and improve.”

Poka will use the new funds to accelerate product development. The funding will also expedite Poka’s ability to better serve its growing global customer base by scaling its go-to-market teams.

40 North Ventures and McRock Capital bring to Poka deep Industry 4.0 experience and a shared passion for driving digital transformation in manufacturing.

“Many Industry 4.0 initiatives promise disruptive automation solutions without considering the workforce and existing processes,” says Ben Sampson, principal at 40 North Ventures.

“We were struck by Poka’s ability to increase productivity — at the shift, factory and enterprise levels — by focusing on improving the way workers interact with equipment, workflows and each other.”

Industrial companies such as Nestlé, Bosch, Johnson & Johnson and Tetra Pak have all implemented Poka’s platform to help connect their workers.