Bloomberg News | October 13, 2023 |
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A Chilean startup offering video game-inspired digitalization services to some of the world’s biggest mines has raised $10 million from investors including Chile’s richest family.
TIMining provides data analytics and real-time simulation to boost productivity and safety at about 50 mines, including some owned by BHP Group, Anglo American Plc and Codelco. The firm wants to grow its client base fivefold and revenue tenfold over the next five years as mines grapple with lower ore quality and higher costs.
“Usually mines achieve 75% to 80% of their monthly mining plans,” chief executive officer Nicolas Jubera said in an interview from Santiago. “With our software, that should go up by 10 percentage points.”
The recent financing round was led by Kayyak Ventures and included investors such as Larrain Vial and the Luksic’s family office. The firm has also pitched Santiago’s startup exchange, ScaleX, and doesn’t rule out going public or buying peers in the future to accelerate growth, he said.
TIMining creates a digital twin of mining operations from data received from sensors or network-connected equipment as a way to boost efficiencies. To develop the software, the team drew inspiration from video games like Warcraft. Jubera himself was a gamer in his youth. “I proved to my mom that I wasn’t wasting my time.”
(By Valentina Fuentes and James Attwood)
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