GreaseBoss: leading the digital transformation of greasing (with some support from Accelerating Commercialisation)

GreaseBoss has developed a high-tech grease management system that provides far greater certainty for those managing the greasing of industrial machinery than current practice. Site managers in sectors such as mining & metals, construction materials & equipment, agriculture & food production and utilities can make sure every individual grease point gets the right dosage of the right lubricant at the right time by implementing a GreaseBoss system – avoiding machinery failures that can cost millions in downtime. An Accelerating Commercialisation grant of $735,195 from the #EntrepreneursProgramme will help GreaseBoss complete final product development and prepare for first sales in the Australian and US markets.

?From humble beginnings to serious early-stage investments

The original commercial vehicle for GreaseBoss and now Australian operating company in the current group structure, GB Operations Pty Ltd, was founded in early 2020 by Steve Barnett, Tim Hall, and Peter Condoleon – three entrepreneurial engineering minds with a collectively broad range of professional experience. By the end of 2020 GreaseBoss had secured angel investments and had been accepted into the Y Combinator accelerator in the US that led to a considerable seed capital raise.

?‘Greasing ain’t easy’

Despite the impressive seed raise and multiple pilot project deployments of the core technology with tier one mining and construction industry companies, unforeseen market and customer requirements were common in the first two years for GreaseBoss and created many challenges needing to be overcome. Live trials of the IoT greasing system that gives a grease gun a brain and allows it to talk to the Internet of Things (very cool!) had revealed the need for near-perfect reliability in grease-point identification tags and auto-luber integration into the GreaseCloud IoT software. Naturally the agile development was ramped up accordingly, but with the end of the seed-capital runway coming into view, GreaseBoss successfully applied for matched funding with Accelerating Commercialisation and has commenced an agreed scope of project work that will finalise their full product offering sooner rather than later.

?Global markets and continued growth

Steve, Tim and Peter have their sights set on the US market for GreaseBoss and establishing a presence there is a key element of their global commercialisation strategy. I’m not sure exciting is a strong enough adjective!